Reality
by Carly86
Summary: After living out their fantasies, the Doctor and Rose have to face reality. Reunion with Jack in the second season. Sequel to my smut story "Fantasies and Dreams", but not necessary to read first.
1. Chapter 1

The sequel and much faster than I planned :)

There is a kind of summary inside this chapter when the Doctor talked to Jack, so you really don't have to read 'Fantasies and Dreams' to understand the story. I would be happy, if you did though ;)

Jack wasn't planned when I first had this idea, but he is the kind of spice, the story needed.

Some quick background information:

Ellis Island is a small island in the near of New York. In 1892, it became the main entry facility for immigrants into the USA.

Jack said in 'Utopia', he was shot because of an argument on Ellis Island in 1892 and realised then for the first time that he can't die.

Would be a shame not to use that, wouldn't it? ;)

Disclaimer: I own the idea for the story, a Yucca palm called 'Chuck' who pretends to be a real palm but is really not and this lame Disclaimer. Everything else is owned by the Beebs. I'm not jealous, though... Really, I'm not... seriously! *crashes glass with hand* ... I also own the shards! HAH! Eat that, mighty Beebs!

Gawd... I'm gonna regret the disclaimer tomorrow! Sorry for that!

****************EDIT*****************  
There won't be threesomes directly in this story because I know that some people have problems with reading about homosexual relationships. However, I have no problem at all with it, so I might do some PWP one-shots that are placed between two chapters of this story but post as a stand-alone. I'm going to tell you about it here then and post the links for you ;)  
So there will only the hints at most but nothing explicit.

~*~

"You didn't!" Jack exclaimed, looking wide eyed at the Doctor and spilling his hypervodka all over his white shirt.

"I did! Queen Abofallagoroga, ruler of three galaxies, covered in tomato juice... and she wear a white dress, mind you."

Jack snorted with laughter. "Bet she didn't like that! How did she react?"

"Like that Queen from Alice in Wonderland," the Time Lord answered and added in a screechy voice, "Behead him! Behead that filthy little cretin!"

"And? Did they do it?" Rose tried with all her might to look serious and concerned but her twitching lips betrayed her.

"Sitting here, aren't I? There is no regeneration when you lose your head... literally. Anyway, there I was, looking at the empty glass inside my hand in disbelief, then at the stained dress and approaching guards..."

"What did you do?" Jack asked, pouring them another round of drinks.

"Said red was a lovely colour for her and ran for my life of course!"

Rose and Jack burst out laughing and clutched each other for support.

The three of them sat currently in the TARDIS' kitchen, drinking to celebrate their reunion and sharing stories from old times. It was just yesterday that the Doctor and Rose travelled to Ellis Island in 1892 and met Jack amidst terrestrial _and_ extraterrestrial immigrants. After a teary reunion, he told them how he wanted to immigrate to the USA and by a happy coincidence discovered the race of Ashoron who wanted to do just the same. Knowing that aliens with tentacles would probably _not_ pass a medical examination, he tried to reason with them and found out that they were indeed of the peaceful sort.

Well, if the Doctor was honest, the ex-Time Agent had everything under control until _he _arrived and insulted the clothes of Lord Gruggel Guggel (Rose's mouth still hurt from trying not to laugh when he introduced himself). From then on, the aliens showed teeth (literally) and the argument ended with Jack getting shot in the heart and returning from the dead. Witnessing his revival, the aliens vanished as fast as their teleports could manage and the remaining three had a very, very long talk.

The Doctor explained everything that happened on the Game Station, got a good beating from Rose for leaving Jack, a quite vivid Jack... behind without telling her anything about it, and was called a few names by the immortal, the TARDIS simply refused to translate. After Rose apologised over and over to Jack for making him into what he was (he forgave her from the start but that didn't keep her from repeating the apologise), the Doctor too asked for forgiveness and the three of them exchanged hugs and kisses to make up. Well, the Doctor and Rose exchanged kisses... kisses with lots of tongue and wandering hands which made Jack wonder, what else he missed out on while he was gone.

Now, after a night of good sleep, they decided to spent the day inside the TARDIS to catch up and get reacquainted with each other again.

"Enough from those stories now," Jack said after a long tale about a werewolf, the Doctor and Rose encountered recently. "What about you two? When did you get together? I mean, it was always pretty obvious that both of you had a thing for each other, but I thought you would be too stubborn to do anything about it, Doc."

"Doc_tor_, not Doc. Or am I calling you _J_?" He took a small sip from his glass and glanced over at Rose. "But it's quite a fun story, actually..."

When Rose blushed furiously and tried to hid her face, the Doctor had Jack's attention completely. "Oh ho! Do tell, Doc_tor_. I think, I will _love _to hear this."

"Well, it all started in Rose's bedroom when she had this interesting little dre-"

"I _think,_ Doctor,-" Rose interrupted him abruptly, looking throughout embarrassed. "-you don't have to be _that_ explicit."

The Doctor pouted adorably, knowing Rose was a sucker for his innocent look. "But it helped me to put everything together! Leaving that out would be like J. K. Rowling not scattering hints all over her books!"

"No chance. You just want to look all great and clever again and make me look pathetic in the process. Jack has definitely _not_ to know about _that_ part."

"But Jack would love to know _exactly_ that part," Jack said, grinning like a Cheshire cat. "I'm a little confused, though. I thought you wanted to start at the beginning... Rose's bedroom sounds more like the place it ended."

Rose swatted his arm playfully. "Oh, you are so full of yourself! What happened then isn't important. Just had a dream, is all. Maybe I should be the one to tell the story instead..."

The Doctor looked quite shock at that and Rose had the impression, he waited the whole evening for this part. "_Please, _let me! I won't say anything bad, I promise."

The Doctor pulled that teary-eyed face again and Rose just couldn't resist him.

"Alright. But keep it short, will you?"

Beaming at her, he continued his tale. "Well, we wanted to have some danger- and running-free time, so we visited Omoron and-"

"Omoron?" Jack was the one to interrupt him this time, a dreamy look placed on his face. "You visited a pleasure planet like _that_ with Rose? Before being an item?"

Now looking slightly peeved at being cut off _twice, _telling the same story, the Doctor answered, "We visited it in 4012. The planet became a pleasure planet in 5010... eight hundred years after your lot invaded it." He sighed heavily, remembering who many people died in the wars, but carried on at once, ever the one to move on. "Anyway! Rose and I got a room with two Fantasy Cabins. Bet you know about those..."

"'Course. Spent half my puberty in one of them." Jack grinned from ear to ear, thinking about the hours and hours, he enjoyed his fantasies in those machines. When he thought about that one with the maid and butler...

The Doctor rolled his eyes at him, knowing full well by the look on the other man's face, what he was thinking about right now. "That. Explains. Everything," he muttered before scratching his head. "Yeah, where was I? Rooms, Fantasy Cabins, right! So, we both enjoyed a session and fantasied about each other. After an interested talk with the machine in my fantasy, clever me found out that Rose had feelings for me and I decided to do something about it."

"In the most humiliating way possible..." Rose mumbled slowly.

The Doctor looked apologetically at her. At least he knew, he had been wrong for once... "I'm still making up for it, aren't I?" he said, grinning and nudged her shoulder with his own.

Rose grinned back. "Every night."

They shared a not quite chaste kiss and Jack had to get their attention back to the matter at hand with clearing his throat. "As much as I hate disturbing you two... and you know I do," he said winking. "I would like to hear the rest of the story before you are entirely forgetting I'm here and start shagging on the kitchen table. If you don't intend to let a poor immortal guy join in, that is."

The couple jumped apart like on fire and blushed furiously.

"Strange. Here I thought you would enjoy watching..." the Doctor said after regaining his composure.

"Oh, I do. But it isn't as great when your only chance of release is your right hand."

Blushing again, the Time Lord looked at Rose and pointed at Jack. "See? _He_ is too explicit in his tales! Not me."

"What he says doesn't concern me, so I don't care. Continue or I will."

Mumbling some incoherent words like 'humans ganging up on him', he did what Rose said. "Right. So, after that I bought a ring, which was able to amplify psychic abilities. While wearing it, I'm able to sent images and feelings into Rose's head. Boy, you should have seen how she squirmed!" he said grinning widely at Jack, before... "Ouch! Rose, did you just kick me under the table?"

"Bad boys have to be punished," she answered, tongue between her teeth. Rose apparently didn't forget about the dungeon fantasy, he had inside that cabin... In bed, they had a long talk about their 'preferences', after leaving the planet.

Jack groaned suddenly, causing the other two to look at him. "You both don't need a ring to sent images and feelings to _me_! Stop the teasing or you two have to face the consequences," he said suggestively, a leer already in place.

Again pointing at Jack, this time with his thumb, the Doctor said to Rose, "You sure, you want to keep him? He seems to be worse than last time..."

Rose snorted in return. "Don't talk about him like a dog, Doctor. You are only making it worse for the poor thing."

When said person underlined her statement with another deep groan, the Doctor ruffled his own hair in embarrassment and said, "Right. Sorry. Carrying on." He took a deep breath and continued. "So, there I was, teasing Rose with all those little perverted images in public, making her all hot and bothered when the tables were suddenly turned! Images backfired and I was also caught in the fantasy... on the dance floor no less! Then I managed to pull out, Rose found out what I did and made me promise to make up for it." The Doctor grinned suddenly, looking ever the smug Time Lord. "Was never more fun to make up for something. Rose is quite... inventive in her wishes and-"

"You _don't _want to elaborate that," Rose said, squinting her eyes at him.

The Doctor swallowed. "I _don't _want to elaborate that," he repeated her words, looking at Jack like a kicked puppy.

Jack laughed at him. "Guess I don't have to ask who the dominant one is in your relationship. What happened after Rose found out? Anything else, you can tell me without getting slapped?" he asked grinning.

"Well, the ring served another purpose in showing her the worst of my memories... about the Time War, how many people died because of me and so on. To my astonishment, she accepted it all at once, without batting an eyelash. I thought, she would run away but instead, she took my hand and... well, we spent some very enjoyable days on Omoron, didn't we?" asked the Doctor, grinning cheekily at her.

Rose grinned back and answered, "Didn't see much else than our room from the planet, though."

"Oi! Why am I the only one who isn't allowed to say anything... juicy?"

"Because you are a rude alien with an oral fixation."

Jack's ears perked up at Rose's words. "Oral fixation?" he asked, grinning.

"Yep, he has to lick _everything_. And I mean everything... can even say which blood type when he licks it. It's a new quirk, he got after his regeneration," she answered his question and thought about what else the Time Lord liked to lick... especially certain parts of-

"Someone is thinking naughty things again~" the Doctor interrupted her thoughts in a singsong-voice.

Rose rolled her eyes. "And his smelling sense became better... _too_ good, if you ask me."

Jack snorted with laughter at that and took another sip from his glass. "You two are too cute! But I already said that, didn't I? Seems like another lifetime now..."

"Well, it is in a way. For you and me at least," the Doctor mentioned, thinking about the time when he was a different man.

Rose looked at both of them and sighed. "The last of the Time Lords, a human who can't die and a London shop girl... not to forget the most amazing ship in the universe." The TARDIS hummed in contentment and Rose patted her wall fondly. "We make quite the team, don't we?"

The Doctor choked on his drink when he saw sudden shine of gold in Rose's eyes... he blinked and it was gone.

"What is it, Doctor? You look like you have seen a ghost..." Rose smiled at him, completely normal and fantastic like he knew her.

"I just thought..." he started but then shook his head. "Nothing... maybe I really saw a ghost."

"What I would like to know... Do you still have that ring? Could have some fun with that..." Jack interjected.

"Nah, don't think so. Only works for people with strong psychic abilities... and it lost quite a bit of power when we left Omoron. Think it was fed by all of those psychic energy flying about..."

"Wait a minute..." Rose said slowly, looking scrutinising at him. "Didn't I tell you to throw that thing away?"

Like a little boy caught with his fingers in the cookie jar, the Doctor evaded her eyes. "I did throw it away... Well, not exactly 'throwing' per se... more like putting away. But it is in a fairly unreachable place, out of the way... which is the whole point of 'throwing things away' isn't it? So, you see I _did, _in a way, what you wanted me to do, didn't I?"

Jack looked at him in wonder. "Wow... he got quite the gob, didn't he?" he asked Rose who shrugged in response.

"You should have heard him when he had regeneration sickness. Mum had to put Valium into his tea to calm him down on Christmas."

"_That's_ what tasted so strange... And I thought, Jackie wanted to poison me..." the Doctor said.

"Nah. You are in her good books for sending me back from the Game Station... Won't be any more when I tell her, we are a couple now, though."

By the look crossing the Doctor's face, Jack got the impression Rose's mum had to be a terrifying person... Then again, most mother-in-laws were... and the Doctor and Rose's relationship seemed to be quite serious.

"Do we _have_ to tell her? I will only end up getting slapped again..." the Time Lord whined and Jack realised for the first time how much he really changed... The old Doctor, though often having that manic grin on his face, was more serious and distant, while this one seemed like a man free from his burden, always laughing and joking around... All of that was probably more because of Rose than the regeneration, though. Jack knew out of experience how people can change when they are in love.

"Of course, we have!" Rose's voice interrupted his thoughts. "She is my mother. And anyway, don't change the topic. Where is the ring?"

"Somewhere safe, don't worry."

"Oh, I only worry about you using it on me again..."

"Come on! Why should I do that? You have the real thing now, don't you?" He grinned smugly and leaned in for a kiss but his lips only met her outstretched hand.

"Maybe, but you are too cheeky for your own good. I could end up talking to my mum and suddenly getting perverted images again. And wipe that innocent look off your face, you aren't fooling anyone!" The Doctor's puppy-wants-a-treat-look vanished at once.

"But it could help us some day..." he whined. "I could confuse pursuers with illusions for example."

"You told me yourself, the ring has now a reach of a few inches... How would _that_ help us?"

The Doctor opened his mouth and, ruffling his hair, closed it again, being obviously lost for words.

"Right," Rose said. "Just get rid of it tomorrow, okay?"

"But I don't want to! It's a great reminder of the start of our relationship and I grew really fond of it... I will keep it inside my pocket without using it. Promise."

"Well said, Frodo!" Jack laughed and patted the Doctor's shoulder who seemed quite smug at being finally able to stand up to his girlfriend.

Rose in turn, glared at them and emptied her glass in one gulp, making both men's eyes bulge out. Most humans couldn't drink five hypervodkas without waking up in a stranger's bed (Jack experienced that part quite a few times) and she just downed her seventh glass. No slurring, no stumbling when she went to get something to eat, no kissing anyone else than her boyfriend (meaning no kissing Jack, who was quite disappointed) and she didn't even begin to tell dirty jokes.

Frowning, the Doctor took the bottle out of her hand when she made to pour herself another drink. "I think you should better not drink anything else, Rose..."

"Why? I'm in better condition than Jack... and he had only two and a half. This stuff doesn't really do it for me, anyway. When I went out with Mickey in the old days, I only had to drink three beers and he had to carry me home."

Both men's eyebrows raised even higher after hearing that statement. The Doctor immediately took out his sonic screwdriver, changed the setting and held it to Rose's forehead.

Rose swatted his hand away, when he continued to buzz the screwdriver up and down her body. "Stop it, will you? What's wrong with you all of the sudden?"

Ignoring her, the Doctor looked at the sonic screwdriver's readings, frowned again and then turned to Jack. "Everything normal... but that's impossible! Well, not exactly impossible but highly unlikely..."

"Well, my friend John managed six without batting an eyelash. Maybe, she can just really hold her liquor..."

"Have you ever heard of someone who was able to take hypervodka but not beer?" the Doctor asked in a slightly snappy voice. "There has to be something wrong with her..."

"_Hello~o_!" Rose tried to get their attention, waving her hands. "Confused 21th century human here who would like to know what the fuss is all about. You had over nine of them, Doctor. What's the problem?"

"The problem is that I'm a Time Lord and alcohol doesn't affect me. You on the other hand are human and hypervodka is the most potent alcohol in the whole universe for your lot."

The Doctor wanted to continue his explanation but was interrupted by Jack. "Hey! You didn't tell me that alcohol doesn't affect you, when we had that drinking match in Cardiff!"

"You didn't ask, I didn't tell. Fair as square," the Doctor said, looking sheepishly at him and turned back to Rose. "When was the last time you got drunk?"

"Dunno. We aren't exactly travelling the universe to get pissed..."

"Think, Rose. Please!"

Rose shrugged. "Has to be before I met you... I drank quite a bit at Christmas, but didn't feel anything. That _was_ kind of strange, when I think about it..."

Startling the other two, the Doctor suddenly stood up and said, "Right, that's it. To the infirmary, you go. I have a theory and I'm not sure, I like it..."

~*~

FEEEEEED MEEE!!! (translation: Please be so kind and review!)


	2. Chapter 2

Just a quick word... (funny, I know :P):  
This story is gonna be more adventurous than "Fantasies and Dreams", but there will still be smut in every chapter (save for the first one of course)... sometimes more sometimes less ;)  
Also, it follows season two but without retelling the episodes. There will be mentionings, but the story tells adventures that happened in between.  
If someone missed it: I added a few words concerning threesomes to the first chapter. I'm going to write them, but they won't be directly in this story. They will be PWPs as one-shots situated somewhere between chapters, so they aren't going to have any impact on the story.  
Alright then... Please leave a review after reading :)

~*~

"Damn... Nothing. There is absolutely nothing," the Doctor said after checking Rose for the tenth time with all the equipment, the TARDIS had to offer.

"But that's good, isn't it?" Rose asked, failing to keep the annoyance out of her voice. In the last thirty minutes, she had been scanned, pinched, groped (not in the way she would have liked) and had various body liquids analysed. And apparently for absolutely nothing.

"Depends. Until now, it could have been anything... radioactive radiation, particles in the atmosphere changing your genetic material, poison in food or drinks..."

"But... you wouldn't take us to a planet where something like that could happen, right?"

"No, the TARDIS would warn us about it... well, not about all food and drinks but we have been careful about that one anyway. Of course, she could have missed something but that's rather unlikely."

"You said, you had a theory... What is it?" Jack asked suddenly, reminding them both, he was there. He watched the Doctor harassing Rose for the whole time, leaning against the doorway and not sure, if he was supposed to leave them to it or not. Curiosity was what kept him there, though...

The Doctor ran a hand through his hair, eyeing Rose from out of the corner of his eye. "I... well, there is a reasonable explanation for Rose's... change. But if I'm right, I wouldn't know what to do... if it is good or bad. There was never a human, who... There are no other cases. It could have a major impact on Rose's body and-"

"Don't you love it when he gets straight to the point?" Rose asked Jack, rolling her eyes. He laughed in return.

"Very funny," the Doctor muttered. "The thing is... you first said, you noticed the difference on Christmas, right?" Rose nodded. "That was right after you had the time vortex inside your body... well, the energy of the time vortex, I mean."

Rose frowned. "You mean, that changed me... or I changed myself? Like I did with Jack." She looked again apologetically at Jack.

"No, not exactly. If your body really changed, there should be something different about you. I should find at least _something..._ but there isn't."

"Which means?"

"It... it could be that I didn't get everything out of you, Rose. That there is still a part of it somewhere hidden inside your body... Somewhere I can't reach with medical instruments."

"Wait," Jack suddenly said. "You said, a human would die, if he had the vortex inside his body... burn up. You yourself died because of it. Not that I'm complaining... but if you are right, how can Rose still be alive?"

Thoughtfully, the Doctor rubbed the back of his neck. "That's something I asked myself the very moment, I realised it was inside of her. I was only able to keep it mere seconds inside my body and died. Rose on the other hand, had it minutes and survived without even a scratch... Something like that should be impossible for your race, and yet she survived." He grinned widely at Rose. "You see, you are even more amazing and special than I thought."

Rose looked from one man to the other. "But... I'm a normal human, aren't I? How can that be? And what's going to happen to me, if you are right?"

"That's just the thing... I don't know. But before we are worrying about that, I will have to find out if I'm right."

"And how do you want to do that? I thought the tests were useless..." Rose said, not being keen of yet another examination.

"They are, but if the time vortex is still inside your body, it's got to be hiding deep inside your mind. That's the only place, I can't fully scan with my equipment."

"Then you will have to see into my mind..."

"Yes... and you wouldn't be able to hide anything from me. The vortex could even be hiding somewhere in your memories... it could be anywhere. Is that okay with you?"

"Of course, I am... Although..." Rose bit her lip. "There is something I have to confess first..."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "I'm listening..."

"That grandfather clock you loved so much in the old days?" The Doctor nodded. "It wasn't the Graske, who broke it... I'm sorry?"

The Time Lord's eyes darkened. "Seems like I will have to punish you again tonight, Rose."

Jack groaned behind them. "You two are _so_ cruel."

Grinning, the couple looked at each other. "Ready?" the Doctor asked Rose, who nodded in return.

Gently, he laid his fingers on her temples and Rose closed her eyes. Only seconds later, she was able to feel the Doctor moving through her mind. Instead of being unpleasant like she always thought, it would be, it felt just... right. Like they reached an intimacy, they had, despite their countless nights together, never acquired before...

~*~

The Doctor moved through Rose's memories, thoughts and feelings, stopping here and there when he thought, he saw a golden glimmer or shine. Despite his task to find the remaining bits of vortex inside her head, he tried to look not too closely at the depths of Rose's mind. He knew, there were things someone wanted to keep to himself, was even afraid to share with his lover and the Doctor didn't intend to tear her secrets away.

However, when he reached the memory, where Rose accidentally destroyed his favourite clock with a rubber ball, he allowed himself to linger. Laughing gently, when she tried desperately to glue the shards back together, he noticed how clearly the memory still was in her mind (they were normally blurred at certain places) and wondered how guilty she really felt about it.

Moving on, he reached some older ones like their adventure on New Earth, his regeneration, the day her father died and the time, they first met. When he suddenly saw a picture of a young man inside her mind, in torn jeans and with dilated eyes, the Doctor turned his head away.

He didn't need to see what happened... Rose told him everything about Jimmy Stone and what he did to her. When she did, it took all of the Doctor's self-restraint not to go after the man, who made Rose went through such a rough time, and show him what exactly the Oncoming Storm was capable of.

Suddenly, the Doctor spotted something golden inside Rose's childhood memories and stopped in his track.

It seemed to be Christmas in her memory. Eight year-old Rose sat in front of a Christmas tree and eagerly opened her present, while an also younger Jackie Tyler watched her daughter fondly. The Doctor too had to smile at the joy in Rose's eyes when she discovered a pink dressed doll in the packet and immediately decided to give her more presents in the future.

However, all previous thoughts were forgotten, when the scene changed all of a sudden. Young Rose and Jackie seemed to move in slow motion until they stopped entirely. Everything became blurred and lost its colour... everything apart from Rose.

The little girl, previously so happy about her present, suddenly looked cold and distant. Slowly, she moved her head around to face the Doctor and smirked at him. Not the kind of smirk, you could expect of a girl, but a cold and calculating one... as alien and ancient as it could possible look in the face of a human child. Her eyes began to shine with gold and even though the Doctor was just in Rose's mind, he could feel the power radiating from her gaze.

Swallowing down the fear that naturally came with the power of the time vortex, he said, "Who are you?"

Rose's mouth didn't move, but he could hear the words inside his head, absolute power in every syllable. "_You know me, Doctor." _

"No. I know what you are supposed to be. The time vortex, the energy, power of the time vortex. But it doesn't have a mind of its own. It wouldn't have been able to hide from me. Who are you?" he asked again.

"_Time Lords... always thinking you know better. Even your title promises to hold power over time... But you don't. Even though you have all that knowledge, all that experience, you can't grasp the whole of my being. I am everything. I am everywhere. I exist in every time and every universe. Don't you think with all my power and eternity, I am able to develop a conciousness? A personality?"_

"But... why would you do that? Why did you stay inside of Rose? What are you doing to her?"

The young Rose sighed. "_Because I'm tired, Doctor. You had me inside of you... you saw what I see, experience all the time and as intense. When you were a mere child and looked into me to become a Time Lord, you also saw the terror of my being... and ran away. Until Rose took me inside her mind, I was only able to communicate with TARDISes. They were the only sentient beings who understood. But then that extraordinary girl absorbed me... and it was wonderful! A mind so pure and compassionate... a human only concerned about the safety of her friends, of the man she loved... And I granted her my power."_

"But that should have killed her... how did she survive?" the Doctor asked, afraid to imagine how a human would have normally ended up.

The child smiled. "_She is special, of course. I'm not surprised, you haven't noticed it yet, Doctor, but among humans there are those with special abilities. Those who look beyond what ordinary people see. People who see things like the future, the mind of others or Time Beetles. Rose is one of them... as was Gwyneth, the girl who saved the world in1869."_

"But it was the Rift, which changed her! She wasn't born with the power of clairvoyance."

"_Yes, but the Rift can only change those with the capability to see. She was even able to move and speak, although she had been dead for minutes... Another thing, the Rift alone isn't capable of." It's smile widened, when it looked at him with amusement. "By the way, Doctor, you have quite a talent for finding them. Rose is by far not the only companion with that ability..."_

Confused, the Time Lord laid his hands behind his neck and began to pace. "I still don't understand..." he exclaimed and stopped to look again at the child. "How could that have saved her? And what do you want with her?"

"_Seeing the universe with different eyes. As amazing as our world is, it tends to lose its shine... you know what I mean, don't you, Doctor?"_

He nodded but stayed silent.

"_Don't worry... I won't harm her in any way. In fact, I'm more than interested in keeping her alive. That's how she survived... through me."_

The Doctor narrowed his eyes at it. "But you let me regenerate."

"_Because it had to happen."_

"Fixed point in time?" he asked.

"_Nah, your noise and ears were terrible."_

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "A speaking time vortex with a sense of humour... _Now,_ I have seen everything."

"_Wait until you meet the devil,"_

"You are having me on, right?" The Bad Wolf, or whatever it liked to call itself nowadays, shrugged and grinned cheekily. "Right, whatever. What about Jack? Did you voluntarily make him immortal?"

"_Jack is much more important than you can imagine, Doctor. He is going to be needed."_

"So, you won't change him back?"

"_He won't die until he served his purpose... and while having you two around, he won't want to leave the world of the living."_

The Doctor sighed, not the slightest bit happy about Jack being used by time itself. "Alright... one last thing: Why is Rose suddenly immune to alcohol? That was your doing, wasn't it?"

The Bad Wolf grinned smugly. "_Of course it was."_

"Why?"

"_Doctor, I'm currently inside her brain. What affects her, affects me. An eternal being of unimaginably power, dancing around and singing old pop songs? I don't think so,"_ it muttered and little Rose rolled her eyes to underline its statement.

The Doctor grinned. "No sinister plans of any sorts then? Just... curiosity?"

"_Just that. And I prefer to stay among her memories, whenever you two have some quality time. So, if you worry about that one..."_

"Right. Good. Well," the Doctor said, blushing. "You won't leave her body and I won't be able to force you out of her, right?"

"_Not until I'm satisfied for the next few millennia."_

"Alright then." He made as if to leave, but turned his head to it again. Looking at the Bad Wolf as threatening as he was capable of, he said, "But if you ever do something to hurt Rose, anything, be it her body or mind, I _will _find a way to remove you from her body."

"Don't expect you to do otherwise... Until we meet again, Doctor," the entity replied smiling, before vanishing in a cloud of gold.

The Doctor turned around and stepped back into reality.

~*~

Jack became nervous when after fifteen minutes, the couple still showed no sign of moving. They went completely still when the Doctor entered Rose's mind and only the rapid movement of their eyes behind their lashes showed, what went on behind the still surface.

Slowly, he went over to his friends and waved his hand in front of their eyes. After getting no reaction whatsoever, he snapped his fingers right before their ears. When even his other attempts (clapping, swearing and calling names) failed, Jack shrugged and decided to get a cup of tea.

~*~

Rose felt a sudden jolt in her body and stumbled, when the Doctor left her mind. The Time Lord caught her in his strong arms and held her securely to his body, before she could fall down to the ground. Rose nuzzled her head in his chest and breathed in his unmistakeable scent.

"Hello," she whispered into his chest and put her arms around his slim waist to be even closer to him.

"Hello," the Doctor whispered back and grinned at the déjà vu.

He felt Rose smile into his jacket. "I seem to got a talent to land into your arms, Doctor..."

"And don't you ever stop," he replied, grinning. "Do you remember everything?"

"Yeah... it's strange to have something or someone inside my body... but I guess, it can't be helped..."

"Do you want it to go?"

"I don't know. I think, I got a special connection with the TARDIS through it and... I don't think it's bad... but I can't help to feel... watched."

"It watched you your whole life, Rose. The vortex knows everything... everything that ever happened or is going to happen to everyone in every place."

"Too many everys, Doctor," she said, tongue between her teeth. "So, it's like God or something?"

"It's at least the closest to it I know..." The Doctor pulled back a little to look into her eyes. "I saw how you destroyed my clock," he said, grinning smugly.

Rose blushed. "Sorry about that... I found the ball and wanted to play, so..."

"Oh, I have just the right pair of balls for you to play with, Rose," he growled and Rose's eyes widened in shock.

"I can't believe you just said that... that's _sooo_ dirty!" She swatted his arm. "Bad, bad Time Lord!"

Grinning, the Doctor moved his hands under the back of her shirt and up and down her spine. "You have no idea how bad I really am..."

Shuddering even more at his words than his actions, Rose put one hand behind his head and pulled him down to meet her lips.

Hands were suddenly everywhere and feeling his trousers growing uncomfortable tight, the Doctor lifted Rose up and sat her down on the infirmary examination table.

Rose grinned at him. "Fancy to play doctor then?"

"Only when you are my patient," the Doctor replied and leaned in for another kiss.

Clothes vanished within seconds and hands discovered every little inch of skin anew. The Doctor brushed his fingers over Rose's sensible nipples, never growing tired of the encouraging gasps and moans, she exclaimed whenever he touched just the right spot.

Rose ran her fingers through his hair and cried out when she suddenly felt his lips and teeth on her breasts. The Time Lord began to move his hands over her back, slightly brushed her bum with his fingertips and then over her thighs.

Rose's breathing quickened when he teased her, running his fingers up until he nearly reached the place, she wanted them to be, only to move them back down again.

"Doctor, _please!_"

He grinned at the desperation in her voice and scent of arousal, coming from her centre. For once not wishing to tease her further, he lightly brushed the sensitive nub of nerves between her legs, causing her to cry out and buck her hips slightly.

"I barely touched you until now and you already want me this bad?" he whispered to her, giving her clit another gentle flick with his fingers.

"Yes! Oh _God_, yes!" Rose gasped out, when his fingers began to tease her entrance. "You were inside my mind... so intimate... I-... I want..."

Grinning and knowing exactly, what it was, she wanted, the Doctor pushed two fingers hard into her slick opening. Rose cried out again and to his astonishment, the Doctor felt her come around his fingers.

Rose shuddered when the last waves of pleasure left her body. "Wow..." she exclaimed, trying to catch her breath and giggling uncharacteristically.

"Wow indeed... you never came that fast before! Maybe I should visit your mind more often..." the Doctor said, wriggling his eyebrows.

Rose grinned back. "Maybe, you should... but now to you..." she said, eyeing his proud erection with unashamed desire.

"Lay back," he growled in return and Rose did what she was told.

Carefully, the Doctor climbed up to her on the table (and was more than glad to have bigger ones than on Earth...). He placed a gentle kiss on her lips and closed his eyes in delight when Rose took his cock in her hand and guided it to her hot and wet entrance. He entered her easily in one quick stroke and both stilled a moment to adjust to the known but, _oh_ so great feeling of being joint.

The Doctor moved slowly at first but soon quickened his pace when Rose encouraged him with moving her hand up and down his back.

Rose quickly felt another orgasm building inside her body and bit her lip at the pleasure.

"Rose, I can't-"

"It's alright, I'm close, too. Just give in, Doctor."

And he did. Moving quicker and harder in and out of her body, the Doctor felt Rose's nails scratching his back, when she came again with a shout. The pain and feeling of her walls convulsing around him, drove him to completion and he spilled his hot seed inside her body.

Gasping, the two waited for their hearts to slow down and grinned at each other.

"Ah, lucky I didn't came five minutes earlier... would be a shame to interrupt you two."

Surprised to suddenly hear Jack's voice and seeing him standing in the doorway, both of them yelped and fell down from the examination table.

Jack winced at the thump, they made, when their bodies connected with the ground. "Ouch, that gotta hurt... don't mind me. I have seen hundreds of naked bodies in my life... although you two sure are gorgeous," he said, winking and stepped to the left when he saw a bedpan, flying his way.

"Get out!" the Doctor and Rose shouted in unison.

"Jeez, you two are no fun at all..." After evading another medical instrument, Jack quickly left the room but not without throwing a "Have fun!" back at them.

"I suppose, we have to close the doors from now on," the Doctor said sighing and tried to glare at Rose, who seemed to have a fit of laughter. "What's so funny?"

"Just the fact that Jack is now walking in on _us_ instead the other way around..."

Grinning, the Time Lord said, "True. The few months, we travelled with him, I accidentally witnessed more sexual intercourse than in my nine hundred years before. You humans sure are insatiable..."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Says the Time lord who needs to get inside my pants ten times a day..."

"Oh, you love it..." He winked at her and Rose grinned back.

"Sure do..."

~*~

The Bad Wolf rolled her eyes when the couple went to go at it again. "Insatiable... that's the word," it muttered and turned back to memory Jackie and her tea.

~*~

Please review :)


	3. Chapter 3

"Care to tell me again, how we got into this situation?" Rose asked angrily, rustling with the chains around her wrists to underline her statement.

"Ask Mr 'I-have-got-to-get-into-the-pants-of-every-slightly-attractive-person-no-matter-the-social-state' over there!" the Doctor replied, not less angry at being handcuffed and laying on a stinky and mouldy ground. If only these planet's equivalent to Earth's rats, would stop running around in the cell... He sure hoped, they didn't like skinny Time Lords for breakfast...

"Oi! How should I have known, it's forbidden to sleep with the high priestess?" Jack asked, for once not so happy about the whole dungeon situation. What good did it do when no one could _touch_? Not that the Doctor and Rose would let him join in anyway, but he could at least _watch_.

"Well, I thought the title 'Holy Virgin of Oscuria' kind of gave it away..." the Doctor muttered. "Not to mention that men are not allowed to be _anywhere_ near her."

Jack sighed and crawled backwards to lean against the cold and slimy wall. "Okay, I screwed up! Satisfied?"

"After escaping and taking a long, hot bath inside the TARDIS, yeah. Another thing... How come, I'm the only one who is chained up on the wall? My feet are killing me..." Rose said.

"Ah, don't worry about that. Oscurians have strange ways of torturing men... Shackling beautiful women in skimpy clothes is obviously one of them. Not to mention their love for bondage... You sure made it easy for them, with what you are wearing..." The Doctor eyed Rose's outfit appraisingly. Since Oscuria was a hot but not too hot planet and reminded her of Arabian Nights, Rose decided to wear a pink and slightly see-through belly top as well as matching wrap skirt. Naturally, the Doctor carried her back to their bedroom when he saw her stepping out of the wardrobe room and Jack had to wait until they finished their 'business' with each other.

Jack laughed at the Doctor's explanation. "Well, tough luck for them. After travelling two weeks with you, I can't be more frustrated than I already am..." Wistfully, Jack thought back to the last few days. Just yesterday, he found his friends snogging in various places, walked in on them while they took a bath and even caught the Doctor making love to Rose on the kitchen table! He would never be able to think about tea without remembering that scene... not that that was a bad thing, of course.

"Not even Kitty had been much help... Or Rondo..."

"Kitty?" the Doctor asked.

"Rondo?" Rose exclaimed at the same time and raised her eyebrows.

"Yeah, Kitty is the High Priestess' maiden name. She prefers to be called Kitty Kat in bed," Jack said grinning cheekily. "Rondo is one of the palace guards. Pretty muscular... and kinky, too. He-"

"Wait a moment... you even slept with a guard?! What the hell did you do _that _for?"

"You wouldn't ask, if you had seen him, Doc," Jack answered.

"I think, we are going to be here quite a while... why don't you tell us the whole story? How you got into the palace and such..." the Doctor suggested and leaned back against the wall, trying to relax as much as possible in the stinky cell.

Jack grinned and began his tale. "All right. It all started when..."

~*~

Five hours before...

"So-" the Doctor said, clapping his hands together. "Where do you want to go? Any special wishes beside 'warm'?" He shook his head. Humans... you can show them the most amazing ice planets in the universe but whenever you ask them where they want to go, they say 'warm', 'sunny' and 'dry'.

"Nah, you can choose, Doc. Don't know much about the 'enjoyable' places from my time as Time Agent, anyway," Jack answered, remembering the countless swamp planets and battlefields, he had to visit.

"And I don't want to go to Earth. So it's up to you, anyway." Rose really hoped not to regret her decision at any time... The Doctor had a nose for trouble after all and after the disaster on Noron 3, a little jungle planet they visited previously, she didn't fancy to run into hostile natives. Especially not those with pitchforks. Or torches. Or mud guns, for that matter. She still had to find a way to get those clothes clean again...

"Right," the Doctor said and jumped over to the console, excitement for their next adventure written all over his face. "I think, we could try Oscuria, planet of sun, sand and summer! Alliteration, hah!"

He pulled a lever and grabbed the console just before the TARDIS rocked violently. Rose and Jack barely managed to get hold of a strut as the ship came with an enormous jolt to a stop.

Grinning, the Doctor ran to the doors and said, "Welcome to Oscuria, the hottest planet of-" At his last word, he opened the door and was immediately met by a strong, icy wind. Snow was blown inside the TARDIS and the Doctor had to brace himself against the door to close it again. Grinning sheepishly, he removed some snow from his head and turned around to his companions.

Rose and Jack stood just behind him, clothes and faces wet from snow, and with exactly similar crossed arms and raised eyebrows.

Nervously, the Doctor cleared his throat. "Ehm... I might have got the planet wrong..."

His friends neither said something nor moved, just continued to glare.

"... and the galaxy..."

No reaction at all.

"... and the season, really. Sorry?" he asked, putting his best 'I'm-so-cute-and-innocent-and-want-a-cuddle'-face on.

Rose sighed and patted his head. "Alright, but you seriously have to work on your driving skills... at least let Jack help."

The Doctor nodded enthusiastically and looked over at Jack, tilting his head slightly.

"Oh, alright! Just stop looking at me like that. Rose really softened you up, eh?" Jack said, still unsure if he liked everything that changed about the Doctor. From the Oncoming Storm to the Oncoming Pout was a rather extreme change...

Grinning like the maniac he was, the Doctor bounced (since when did he bounce?!) back to the console to hopefully correct the TARDIS' course. Rose went to the door and after an encouraging nod from her lover, opened it a bit to peek out. After turning back to her friends and answering their questioning gazes with a nod, the three of them high-fived and stepped out of their magnificent time ship.

Oscuria was everything, the Doctor promised and more. To protect its inhabitants from the three burning suns, it had a protective shield around it, making a nice tan possible without burning the skin. The capital city, Oboria, consisted of dozens of hotels, souvenir stalls and other shops. All kinds of aliens wandered through the giant city, searching either for presents for their relatives at home or for new business partners and costumers. The Doctor explained to his friends how the planet lied between three big business planets and was meeting place for most big corporations.

Rose stared in awe at the mass of different alien species. Since Platform One, she didn't see so many at once. Skins, scales and fur in all shades of colour... several legs and arms, some with claws others with paws or even tentacles... all that defined the different races of aliens in the city. Even Jack didn't seem to know where to look next.

Grinning, the Doctor looked at his companions' sparkling eyes and said, "So... what do you think?"

Smiling her most brilliant smile, Rose looked up at him and answered. "Brilliant... absolutely brilliant!"

"Gotta say, Doc... Haven't seen anything like this for a very long time," Jack said, grinning and winked. "All the possibilities..."

Recognising the look in his eyes and sound of voice, the Doctor's eyes widened. "We aren't here so you can add a few species to your bedpost! Try to behave, will you? The inhabitants are pretty religious and don't do kindly to perverts messing about with their kin and guests."

Pouting, like only one Jack Harkness can do, the human man crossed his arms. "You two are shagging like rabbits every day! Sometimes even in front of my eyes,-" The Doctor cried scandalised "Not on purpose!", but Jack ignored him. "-and I'm not even allowed to have some fun on this planet? That's hardly fair!"

"I brought you to a pleasure planet just yesterday!" the Doctor said indignantly.

Jack winked. "51st century boy. What did you expect?"

"Boys!" Rose interrupted the Doctor before he was able to reply anything. "We are here to have fun and not silly arguments... Let's go shopping, okay?" She grinned happily at them and both men felt suddenly absolutely disarmed. 'Shopping' was for neither of them the definition of fun but her smile tended to give her what she wanted.

~*~

After two hours of extensive buying, Jack finally had enough. It would have been alright just to enjoy the sights and roam through the hundreds of little stalls and stores... but only if he didn't travel with the two randiest people in the universe! Rose only had to look a second too long at the Doctor and before neither of them knew what happened, Rose was suddenly pressed somewhere against a wall and snogged wildly by the Time Lord. And Jack ad to restrain himself... yeah right!

Taking his chance when Rose grinned at the Doctor, her tongue poking out between her teeth, Jack dived into an alleyway, when the two of them once again had their hands all other each other.

Whistling, he wandered through the streets, eyeing one beautiful alien after another. Although some of them really caught his eye, Jack decided to keep searching. He was in the mood for something (or someone...) more exotic... special. Something like-

He stopped in his track when he reached a broad street filled with people. They were screaming and waving to someone, Jack couldn't see in his position.

Curious, he went over to a green haired and red eyed women, who looked human apart from that.

"Hey, gorgeous!" Jack said winking. "Could you tell me what's going on over there?" He pointed at the mass of people.

"'The Holy Virgin of Oscuria' changes her quarters to the palace. Pretty important thing for the Oscurians... The high priestess succeeds to the crown. They always had a king before but the last one died because of an unknown disease and didn't have any kids," the woman answered, obviously bored of the whole thing.

"Unknown disease, eh? And the high priestess happens to be ready for the crown... I suppose the priestesses were also accidentally in charge of the kings treatment?"

"Why... yes! How did you know?"

"Just guessed..." Jack muttered before giving the woman another brilliant smile. "Thanks for your help, cutie! I have got to take care of something, but if I ever see you again... I would be more than happy to show you exactly how grateful I am," he said winking and his ego roared when she blushed in response. After saying goodbye to her (not before giving her the rest with a kiss on the hand), Jack made his way through the throng of people.

Finally seeing who the people were celebrating, he gaped at the sight in front of him. The high priestess was naked save for a thong and a see-through robe around her body. Her figure shone in numerous colours and shimmered in the light of the suns. Her pinned up silver hair reached even like this up to her waist and-

~*~

"-blinded the handsome Captain in the most delicious way. Her curves, the delicious form of her breasts, her petite, luscious bum-"

"We got the point, Jack!" the Doctor interrupted Jack in his praising of the beautiful priestess. "Care to hurry up a little? I'm not really in the mood of your little conquest stories..."

The Captain looked at the annoyed Time Lord and sighed. "Sometimes you are really no fun, Doc..."

"Jack," the Doctor said a threat now evident in his voice.

"Alright, already! I followed the priestess and the rest of the stately procession to the palace, where I met Rondo. Of course, at first he didn't want to let me in but I wouldn't be Jack Harkness, if that _ever_ stopped me. So I flirted with him and... did I mention his impressive build? Boy, he has muscles in places I didn't even know existed! Well, not in humanoid species at least... Anyway! He told me, his change of shift was in half an hour so I waited and then he took me inside the castle with him. After we had some... _fun_, I left his room when he fell asleep. Poor Rondo had been all worn out..." Jack said with a wink at Rose, who blushed in return.

After the Doctor warned him with a deep growl, Jack continued, "I walked through the palace like I owned the place and although some people were looking at me, no one said a thing. After searching half of the castle, I finally found the priestess... in her bedroom."

"What a surprise..." the Doctor muttered.

"Yeah, it was actually... Not even one guard outside her door. Kind of strange for the new 'queen', don't you think?Anyway... so, there I was, standing inside of her bedroom and she just stared at me and asked who I was. I confronted her with my theory of her killing the king and you won't guess what happened next!"

The Doctor raised his eyebrows and tried to look ever the superior life form (which wasn't as easy as usual when one had been shackled). "She became suddenly all remorseful, looked at you with doe eyes and seduced you? Although, you probably chose to see it the other way around..."

Jack's mouth clapped open, closed again and after a few minutes in which the Doctor was able to practically see the little gears working inside his head, he opened his mouth once again to say, "Alright! Point goes to the insatiable, smug Time Lord... But back to the story," Jack continued. "So, I slept with her and after everything was over, she suddenly screamed for the guards! They believed I _forced_ her! Can you believe that?! Me, Captain Jack Harkness _forcing_ someone to sleep with _me_?" He shook his head in disbelief. "What has the universe come to... And not only that: she wasn't even a virgin! Believe me, I can tell..."

"Yeah, yeah... If you could stop nursing your hurt ego back to health for a moment-," Rose said, rolling her eyes. "-care to think about a way of breaking out? As much as I love the... dirty, slimy dungeon atmosphere and death penalties, I really got to go to the loo!"

"Well, sorry to disappoint you, but our hands are literally bound and my sonic screwdriver is in my coat which they took... We won't be able to get out without someone opening the chains and door..." The Doctor looked apologetically at her.

"Great... absolutely great... And of all things, you just _had_ to greet Jack with the words 'get laid by the wrong person again, dude?', when they led him to the prison in front of us!"

"Oi! How should I have known, he was dumb enough to sleep with the high priestess?! Well, not that something like this never happened before... It does quite often actually, but-"

"Hey! I'm right here! Why the hell are you-" Jack stopped in his track when he suddenly heard footsteps outside the door.

The three of them caught their breaths when slowly someone unlocked the door and opened it. A big, wide shouldered person stood in front of them, lit only by the light of the corridor behind it.

After his eyes adjusted to the light, Jack laughed heartedly when he recognised the person. "Rondo! Great to see you, pal! What's up? You often down here?"

Ignoring Jack completely (who in turn looked absolutely crushed), Rondo went over to the Doctor. "I'm Rondo Aborian de Nonsy the third, member of the commission of inquiry concerning the king's untimely death and acquire your assistance," he said, eyeing the Doctor curiously. "You... aren't human, are you?"

The Time Lord gave him his brightest smile. "You are very observing, Mr Rondo Aborian de Nonsy the third! Or Rondo... can I call you Rondo? Would save us a _lot _of time."

Rondo shrugged. "Be my guest. But you still didn't answer my question... Who are you?"

The Doctor opened his mouth but Rose had been quicker and said, "The Doctor. Just the Doctor. And he takes his drinks shaken, not stirred."

"What? I... don't have drinks and... what?" the guard asked confused, scratching his head.

"Oh, don't listen to her! She is just sulky because she has to pee..." the Doctor said, ignoring Rose's outcry of indignation. "Like she said, I'm the Doctor. The beautiful but rude lady in the corner is Rose Tyler and I suppose you already... _know_ Jack. Now... ehm... do you mind taking these off?" He rustled with the chains.

After freeing them, Rondo gave them robes similar to those of the guards and lead them out of the prison. Upon arriving at his house, Rose dashed to the loo and the Doctor turned to Rondo. "You want our assistance, you said... May I ask why? You don't know us after all... And why do you think we could help?"

"Because of a prophecy, Doctor. Five hundred years before my time, there was an oracle, more precise and mysterious than any other. It prophesied, three strangers would come to our lands, all looking human but only two of them would be. It said, they would arrive in a time of change and be our only chance to protect our planet from the reign of terror."

"But surely you got more human visitors on this planet?"

Rondo grinned. "Yeah, but not every party consists of a pervert, a rude blonde and a thin lunatic."

The Doctor and Jack shouted "Oi!", but Rondo continued unfazed. "So, what about it, Doctor? Can I count on your help?"

Grinning, he answered, "It would be my pleasure!"

~*~

"And you are sure, you didn't visit this planet before? The prophecy sounds a little too accurate to my ears..." Rose said two hours later in one of the guest bedrooms in Rondo's house. Jack had one of his own and much to the Time Agent's annoyance, the Doctor refused to let him cuddle with them.

"Yup! Not yet anyway... I suppose we could visit the past afterwards to take a look at that oracle, Rondo was talking about... and maybe avoid a paradox or two," the Doctor answered winking before taking off his coat (Rondo got it back for him) and jacket. "The bed seems to be a little small... think we can cope?" he asked and nearly jumped when Rose suddenly stood behind him and laid her arms around his waist.

"Don't we ever?" she said near his ear and let her hands wander down to the fly of his trousers.

The Doctor swallowed visibly when Rose pulled the zip down and brushed her fingertips over his starting erection.

"R-Rose," he gasped out in a squeaky voice, he hoped his enemies would never ever hear. "Do... Do you really think we should do this? We... We are guests and Rondo is downstairs..."

"I'm pretty sure Jack is keeping him company right now," Rose answered, pulling down his trousers before beginning to work on the buttons of his shirt.

"Jack? But he ignored him the whole ti-" His sentence ended in a squeak when Rose bit just the place on his neck that made him scream out her name in bed every time.

"Rondo was just peeved that Jack left him behind... And you know Jack: he can charm himself in everyone's pants." Rose pulled down his now open shirt, when the Doctor turned around with raised eyebrows.

"Not in yours, I hope," he said, this time in a voice that would make everyone cower in fear... everyone but _her_.

Rose bit her lip before smiling cheekily at him. "Can't say I wasn't tempted. Your former self had been very frustrating at times... especially after all this _dancing._" She shrugged. "But your 'Hands off the blonde!' comments and threats to toss him out an airlock, kept him away."

The Doctor crossed his arms and if anyone, who didn't know him, saw him like that, he would say he pouted. But Rose knew better, because he was a Time Lord and Time Lords didn't pout. Not ever. At least in the Doctor's little world, they didn't. "So, you would have slept with him, eh?"

"You can stop playing the peeved alien, Doctor. I also caught you looking at his bum at times... and anyway, I would never ever put him before you. You know that, don't you?"

"'Course I know..." he mumbled, still avoiding her eyes.

Rose took hold of his head and turned his face over to look at her. "Doctor, you might not have realised it but you are half naked while I'm still fully clothed... Do you want to continue sulking or get back to the matter at hand?"

The Doctor grinned when his eyes wandered up and down her body. "Wouldn't call that fully clothed, Rose Tyler... not at all," he said, hunger now evident in his gaze. "But 'matter at hand', yeah! That sounds about right..."

With two quick movements of his hands, he opened Rose's top and freed her breasts. Rose gasped when the Doctor dipped his head and and took one of her already erected nipples into his mouth. His fingers ghosted over the small of her back until they found the hem of her skirt. He thought the piece of clothing had to be one of the easiest to remove ones in the whole universe, when he pulled at a string and the skirt fell to a puddle around Rose's feet. Her panties were as easily gone and before she even realised the Doctor had released her nipple, Rose found herself thrown onto the bed.

She giggled when she bounced up and down the soft mattress but her sounds where soon muffled by the Doctor's tongue invading her mouth. He caressed what felt like every single inch of her body with his strong hands and Rose gasped when she felt his hard erection pressed against her thigh.

When he turned his attention to the base of her neck, she moaned and exclaimed, "GOD! Take off your damn pants and fuck me already!"

The Doctor stopped in his track and turned to look at her with raised eyebrows. He wasn't surprised to see her blush at her own words. "What a filthy mouth you got, Rose Tyler..." He suddenly began to grin broadly. "I like that!"

Rose growled and pressed the back of his head down to meet his lips in a hot and demanding kiss. The Doctor pulled back just before his respiratory bypass system had to kick in and grinned even wider. "Your wish is my command!" And with that, his pants were gone in an instant.

Now also grinning, Rose grabbed the Doctor by his shoulders, turned him over and pressed him into the soft sheets. Straddling his hips, she grinned down at him.

"Eager, are we?" the Doctor asked breathlessly and brushed his fingers lightly over her thighs.

"For this? Always," Rose answered and without further ado, she took hold of him and positioned him just at her slick entrance.

The Doctor's eyes rolled back into his head when she sank down a little and teased him with her warm folds. "Rose... you are... so mean..."

Grinning, she sank down even lower and the Doctor's hands grabbed her thighs a bit harder without even realising it.

"Say you want me, Doctor," she whispered to him and caressed his shaft with her fingertips.

The Doctor growled. "You have got no idea how much I want you, Rose. I want you so much it scares me," he answered and, surprising both of them, he grabbed her hips and pressed her down onto him.

Rose gasped and the Doctor looked sheepishly at her. "Sorry, I didn't plan to do that... I just... did," he said grinning.

Groaning, Rose twisted her hips in just the way he liked it and made him moan. "Don't. Talk," she exclaimed, when she began to move.

His hands searched her breasts and pinched her nipples when they found them, making Rose squirm on him and the Doctor himself gasp in return.

Rose soon felt her release approaching and shouted out his name, when waves of pleasure coursed through her body. The contractions of her walls around him soon made him follow her and he shouted out her name when he came inside of her.

Gasping, they tried to catch their breath and Rose moved over to lay beside him. The Doctor took her into his arms and lay his chin on her shoulder.

"I love you, Doctor," Rose whispered to him, surprised by her own words but curious of his answer.

It took a while before he responded. "... Quite right, too."

What he couldn't see was her sad face and a slight golden glow inside her eyes.


	4. Chapter 4

Hey there! I have got a beta reader from now on.

naughtybunny23 from Teaspoon offered her help and did an amazing job on this.

Enjoy!

~*~

The Doctor, having slept not a wink, jumped up at Jack's scream. He grabbed his sonic screwdriver, ignored Rose's muffled "Whassis?" and ran out of the room. Going down the stairs, he heard yet another scream from Jack and burst, screwdriver ready to attack, into the living room.

Unexpectedly, he found Rondo and Jack sitting in front of a strange machine that nearly covered the entire wall of the room.

"Ah, there you are!" Jack said, grinning ear to ear, his gaze wandering up and down the Doctor's body. "Great outfit, Doc."

Realising the meaning of that sentence and Jack's scrutinising look, the Doctor swallowed, looked down at himself and grabbed for the nearest thing: a big, pink teddy bear. Covering his private parts as best he could, he glared at Jack. "Oi, wipe that grin off your face! Why did you scream?"

Grinning madly, Jack petted the machine in front of him and answered, "Because of this baby here: a Spy-O-Mat 5000! The best way to spy on someone for the next two thousand years. Check out the workmanship... the way its circuits shine in the sun... the amazing-"

"Jaaaaack," the Doctor said, his voice rising in a warning manner. The Time Agent cleared his throat.

"Ehm... yeah. I just never thought I would get to see one. This thing is legendary in my ti-"

"Alright then," the Doctor interrupted Jack before he could expose them as time travellers. "Mind if I get dressed first?" The grin on Jack's face answered his question. Rolling his eyes, the Doctor stepped backwards out of the room and screeched when a very familiar hand suddenly slapped his bottom.

"So, you stepped out of bed to give Rondo and Jack a private show, yeah?" Rose said, grinning from ear to ear at her lover's predicament, before spotting the teddy bear in front of him.

Ignoring the Doctor's outcry of protest, Rose grabbed the cuddly pet, baring his body once again to the men's curious eyes. Covering his little Time Lord with both hands, he ranted about 'evil blondes' and ran off to get dressed.

The whole room erupted with laughter when he left and Jack, wiping away a tear, said, "Did you see his face? He was as red as a tomato! God, I would love to get a picture of that scene!"

"Oh, that shouldn't be a problem," Rondo said, typing something on his incredible machine. "There is a camera-bot inside the bear."

And with that, the room was once again filled with laughter.

~*~

Meanwhile, the Doctor grumpily put on his clothes. When he went over to the bedpost, where Rose threw his tie yesterday, he stopped in his tracks and looked at her side of the bed. He was still able to see the faintest outline of her body and thought about how they lay together after their lovemaking. Love... she said those three words again. Those three words he was unable to return.

What was it about humans and their need to express their feelings verbally? Didn't he _show_ her what he felt? Didn't she _know_ without it being said?

The Doctor took his tie and went over to the mirror, watching himself as he twisted and turned the length of cloth around his neck while still in deepest thought.

He could explain it to her... could tell her that Time Lords didn't normally feel like humans do. That this was new for him and even his race. That he wasn't ready yet to voice those words that were easily said but meant so very much. But would she understand?

She grew up in a time and place where it is said without real meaning behind it... where people say it sometimes without even realising the significance of those words. So, why was it so important to her? Why did she look so incredibly sad whenever he gave an answer she didn't want to hear?

Sighing, he put on his jacket and coat and went back to his friends. He knew he would have to face this problem some day... knew he had to deal with the vortex as well... but for now, he had to save another planet.

~*~

"Right, here is the plan," Rondo said five minutes later. "Thanks to the Spy-O-Mat, we got to know all about the priestess' s weaknesses, habits and, most importantly, crimes. These little things-" he held up a little silver ball, that looked a lot like a Snitch without wings to Rose. "-are chameleon camera-bots. They can change their colour according to their surroundings."

After pressing a little button on the camera-bot, Rondo threw it into the air, where it began to levitate and change its skin to match the colours and pattern of Rondo's wallpaper.

The Doctor looked in glee at the little thing and Rose got the sudden urge to ruffle his hair. He looked like a little boy with a new toy.

"Oh, that's brilliant!" he said joyfully and reached into his jacket for his specs. "It has circuits of Xogton 4, I believe?" the Doctor asked, putting on his glasses and inspecting the floating object. Rondo nodded and if he wondered about the Doctor hopping around in the room, babbling three-hundred-eighty words a minute, he showed no indication of it.

"-A neutron energy flow... oh, that can end nastily but this is brilliantly constructed. And the metal alloy... Mithril, I think. The best you can get, but... expensive. Very expensive. Say, Rondo-" the Doctor said, taking off his specs. "Who is your sponsor? Who is behind this whole investigation?"

"That, Doctor, I can't tell you. Someone sponsors our organisation with only one condition: complete anonymity. I can't break my word, I'm afraid."

"Anonymous, eh? Either a terribly generous person, or..." The Doctor seemed to be so deep in thought that no one dared to utter a word. "Right!" he suddenly said, clapping his hands together and making the others jump in the process. "Who fancies a cup of tea?"

~*~

It took them two hours to learn everything there was to learn about the priestess. Not surprisingly, Jack was right with his 'not-a-virgin' theory. Kitty, as he loved to call her now, had had many lovers in her life. She reminded Rose of Dolores, a girl who lived close to her flat and was known for having slept with every man (and some women) in the Powell Estate. Well, everyone apart from Mickey, who seemed to be quite crushed at her lack of interest. Rose never told him that she gave Dolores a taste of the famous Tyler slap, when she heard her saying to her girlfriends she wanted to play with Mickey next.

Grinning smugly at the memory, Rose noticed the Doctor's questioning look and just winked at him. He didn't have to know everything...

~*~

The Doctor looked curiously at his lover. He knew that look... it was exactly the same she got just before she stole his tie and tied his hands to the bedpost. To see that look outside of the bedroom was exciting to say the least and made him wonder what she was thinking about.

"Yeah," he said a little breathlessly when Rondo asked him about the time of their attack. "Tonight would be best, I think. Your people are ready?"

"Always. They have waited for this moment since the king's death," the Oscurian answered, his face showing for the first time anger at the situation on his planet.

"I still don't understand why you aren't just telling your people about everything. I know she has accomplices, but..." Rose asked Rondo, while momentarily distracting the Doctor with the tip of her tongue peeking out between her teeth.

Rondo smiled wistfully before clearing his throat to explain. "The problem is that she helped our lands a lot before this. The people trust her unconditionally. We think she planned everything years ago and just waited until she got her chance. We have to get solid evidence. Better than tapes of her talking about it."

"And what is her ultimate goal? You only spoke about money... but that's not all, is it?" the Doctor asked.

Rondo looked appreciatively at him. "No. We think she is searching for a special material. Something as a source of energy, deep inside of our ground."

"But isn't that good?" Jack asked confused. "In every time and every place, people are searching for new ways to get energy. I know, she would probably want to sell it off, but that's not bad in itself, is it?"

Rondo shook his head. "You don't understand. The earth of this planet is sacred, and has been for centuries. No one is allowed to touch it save for the purpose of bringing life, let alone steal something from it. To break this holy vow our ancestors made hundreds of years ago, would mean to also break our people."

Rose looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "You are worshipping dir-" Stopping her sentence with his hand over her mouth, a patronizing glare and a shake of his head, the Doctor asked Rondo about security measures in the palace.

Rondo, although being confused by their strange behaviour, answered at once. "The usual, guards and security cameras. We can disrupt the latter with our bots. The guards are using stun guns, so we just have to try not getting caught. Well... I say 'we', but I really mean 'you.' I have to work tonight so they won't be suspicious about me being there."

The Time Lord nodded, but then shrieked when Rose suddenly licked his palm and pulled his hand away.

Slowly, his lover licked her lips and said, "Delicious," making the Doctor blush and think about things entirely unrelated to the matter at hand.

Grinning at his reaction, Rose turned to Rondo. "Don't worry. We are pretty good in hiding and running away!" she said, before her smile vanished and she frowned. "That... makes us sound like cowards, doesn't it?"

"Better running cowards than dead heroes!" the Doctor replied, grinning in excitement. "Alright! Who wants to get down to the planet-saving business now? We've got work to do!"

Rondo shook his head while he watched the three leave the room, chatting happily about their newest adventure. "These people are strange..."

~*~

In the end, entering the palace was surprisingly easy compared to actually _reaching_ it. The Doctor, Rose and Jack became overnight the most wanted persons on the entire planet. (Jack insisted he had always been 'most wanted' but his friends ignored him). People on every corner in every street were now looking out for them and, because the priestess promised their weight in gold as a reward, even the old Oscurians kept their walking sticks ready to attack whoever came their way. Jack joked they should watch out for flying teeth. The Doctor joked, _he_ should look out for other peeved former lovers.

Taking a look at the grinning Rondo and his very impressive set of sharp teeth, Jack swallowed and walked on in silence.

The three fugitives wore hooded black robes, such as only the silent monks on Oscuria were allowed to wear, hiding their faces from the curious eyes of the citizens. Rondo, too, wore one, so the people wouldn't get suspicious of their number.

"They are scared of us," the alien answered their unspoken question. "The monks never talk or show their faces. They dedicated their lives solely to the gods. Not even the priestesses are allowed to see under the hoods. We will have to take them off before we enter the palace, though. The guards know the monks would never enter a place like that."

"A place like what?" Rose asked.

"A place where the priestesses are living. They disagree with their ways and tend to keep to themselves."

When they entered a more crowded street, the four of them kept walking in silence.

~*~

Hiding in the bushes where they were able to see the entrance, Rondo went over the plan again.

"The High Priestess seems to be pretty sure of herself. She has not increased the number of guards," he said in a hushed voice. "Alright! The guards change shifts in ten minutes. I'm going over to the current guard then, chat a little with him and take over for him. You need to wait approximately five minutes in case he comes back. Then you three have to come over to me and if the way looks clear, I'm going with Jack to look for the priestess. The Doctor and Rose," he nodded to the couple. "are going to look for the information room, where it's most likely that she keeps the evidence for her plans. Look for anything suspicious like interplanetary calls, blueprints for digging machines and so on. When you've got everything, send one of the bots to me and I'm going to tell my men to storm the palace. Everything clear?"

"Nope. Who put _you _in charge?" the Doctor said grinning, no hint of annoyance in his voice. Jack and Rose snickered behind him in remembrance of old times and Rondo scratched his head in wonder.

"I... well, I'm the leader of the investigation, so I just thought..." he said confused and raised his eyebrows when Jack and Rose just began to laugh harder. "What?"

The Doctor put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry about it," he said, still grinning madly. "Let's do this!"

After seeing the others nod, Rondo took a deep breath and went off to the palace.

~*~

Apart from the Time Lord expressing his delight out loud when he saw the palace had a little shop, everything went according to plan. The Doctor and Rose were now searching for the information room.

"He said left, right, left, left, straight on, right, left, upstairs, right and left... right?" the Doctor asked for the umpteenth time.

Rose rolled her eyes at him. "You are the one with the 'superior sense of time and direction'," she said, quoting his response when she wanted to write down the directions.

"But this place is like a maze!" the Doctor said, his voice rising at the end of the statement.

Rose had just begun to say something very unladylike, when the Doctor put a finger on his mouth and shushed her. Listening carefully, they heard two men talking. The Doctor acted at once, opening the nearest door and pulling Rose inside. After closing it quietly, the two of them held their breath when they heard the men's footsteps and voices right in front of the door.

The small cupboard, where the Doctor pulled Rose inside, was entirely dark around them. Rose felt fluffy fabrics hanging on both sides of her, making the room even smaller than it already was. Behind her, she could feel the Doctor's firm body pressed against her back and his hot breath on her shoulder. Her heart skipped a beat when his cold hands moved to rest on her naked waist (she wore her orient outfit again).

"To be more comfortable," the Doctor whispered into her ear, while drawing her even nearer to his body.

Rose cursed her insatiable libido, when a sudden rush of desire coursed through her body and she thought about all the possible things you can do inside a small cupboard apart from storing clothes.

Relieved at the two guards' loud conversation about their respective wives at home, Rose giggled quietly when she remembered a previous journey.

"Wha- What are you giggling about?" the Doctor whispered into her ear and Rose was able to practically feel his raised eyebrows.

"Just remembered when we hid inside a cupboard in 19th century Paris," she said, feeling another shiver going through her body. "You were surprised about my... _dancing_ abilities."

"Oh, so we're using that metaphor again? And here I thought you loved talking dirty by now," the Doctor responded, giving her shoulder a short kiss.

"I am," Rose said a little breathlessly. "This is just hardly the time."

One of the Doctor's hands began to draw small circles on her belly. "Hardly the time?" he repeated. "Wasn't it 'not the time' when we hid inside the cupboard from a gargoyle? That didn't stop us though, did it?"

Rose nearly screeched when he nibbled on her earlobe and she felt a familiar hardness pressed against her back. "No," she breathed out. "But this is important."

"Was important then, too," the Time Lord whispered, moving the hand that drew circles down while the other one moved up to cup one of her covered breasts. "Had to save lives." He nibbled on the sensitive skin of her neck. "Avoid an invasion of stony aliens." The hand on her breast found her hardened nipple and rolled it around with its thumb. "And get that French dress for your mother."

Rose bit back a groan when the other hand went under her skirt and knickers, seeking her hot centre. Knowing she had to make a last attempt to stop him, the former London girl stopped the exploring hand of the current Time Lord with one of her own. "It's still not right," she said, her breathing laboured by his ministrations. "Rondo depends on us."

"We won't get caught," the Doctor promised, his hot breath once again against her ear. "And it will be over quickly... you know it will." Every word from him sent shivers down her spine. "Besides, we don't get a chance to do it while hiding inside a cupboard that often. It's exciting, isn't it?"

She heard him breathing in her scent and knew he had to know how right he was with that last statement.

"Last time, you were surprised about my flexibility." Rose was having problems processing her thoughts by now. "How about your flexibility? Think you can cope?"

"If we ever let Jack join in, you will see exactly how _flexible_ I can be," the Doctor said huskily. Rose had not realised she had let go of his hand until he pushed two fingers easily inside of her.

She groaned more loudly than she should have not only because of his hand down her knickers but also because of her thoughts. "Did you use that ring again to send naughty thoughts into my brain?" Rose panted out while he moved his fingers in and out of her.

"Those, Rose Tyler," he said, his other hand now vanishing under her top to reach her hot breast. "-are entirely your own."

The Doctor began to work on her in earnest now, moving his fingers in and out of her faster and faster, while massaging the little bundle of nerves with his thumb. Rose bit her lip to keep from screaming when she felt her orgasm approaching faster and faster. Her heartbeat quickened and she thought she would explode while the pleasure inside of her built up and up. Rose desperately wished to come, knew she wouldn't be able to be quiet much longer. She barely heard the men outside of the room, the Doctor's quick breathing behind her or the slurping sounds his hand made inside of her knickers. Her whole body screamed for release. and losing every bit of her remaining rational thought, she began to moan loudly as she felt the Doctor's hardness pressing against her bum. He, too, began to groan at the sudden friction as she began to wiggle her hips against his groin.

He quickened the pace of his fingers and her release hit her so suddenly and hard that she cried out loudly. Pleasure wave after wave coursed through her body, leaving her trembling in the Doctor's arms.

Slowly, her throbbing ebbed away, leaving Rose panting as her heart began to slow down and the relaxed feeling of being absolutely sated settled in. She grinned lazily up at the Doctor and despite the darkness of the room, she was able to see his desire for her inside his eyes.

"And now to the real thing..." he said huskily and removed his hands from under her clothes. He was just beginning to unzip his fly when the door suddenly opened and two confused guards looked right into their faces.

"What the-" one of them started, while he took in Rose's flushed face and the panting man behind her.

"Hello! " the Time Lord said, grinning maniacally at them. "I'm the Doctor and my trousers feel entirely too tight! Come back in a couple of minutes, will you?" With that, he slammed shut the door again and locked it up with his sonic screwdriver.

"I hope you are ready, Rose Tyler, because _this_ will be our quickest shag ever!"


	5. Chapter 5

anne: Like I already said, there will be nothing more than friendship between Jack and his friends in this story. I'm planing, however, to write a few one-shots with the three of them that can be seen as happening or not happening between chapters. I'm going to leave it to the reader how they want to see it. BTW, a sexual relationship between the three of them isn't necessarily OOC. There are a few writers, like 'wmr' for example, who can pull that off pretty well.

montypython203: I originally wanted to let Rose ask about it and the Doctor answer that Tolkien's influence reached even the far future XD. But seriously, if they ever find such a hard metal, I wouldn't be surprised if they are calling it 'Mithril' :P

~*~

"I can't believe it," the Doctor said, shaking his head. "I really can't believe it... You, Rose Tyler, are an unbelievable thing." Stepping over the knocked-out guards, he pointed an accusing finger in her direction.

Blushing, Rose followed him while adjusting her wrinkled clothes. "It's all your fault!" she said, trying not to look at the evidence of her behaviour on the floor. "I was so embarrassed... of course, you couldn't expect me to act reasonable!"

"You weren't complaining, though." Wriggling his eyebrows, the Doctor bent down to push the unconscious guards into the cupboard, closed and locked it with his sonic screwdriver. He pursed his lips when he looked at the now innocent looking door. "At least one of them went to get a key. If they had broken it open, that would have been rather..." he rubbed the back of his neck, "_uncomfortable_." He looked back at her and shook his head again. "Still can't believe what you did, though..."

Face still flushed bright red, Rose rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips. "I. Was. Embarrassed. I didn't know what I was doing!"

"Rose...," the Doctor started, putting both hands on her shoulders. "Normal women would screech, giggle or just _blush_ when they are embarrassed... You, my dear, knocked them out with a shoe. A red shoe. A red, high-heeled shoe... and ugly! A red, high-heeled and ugly shoe out of a cupboard! Ha!" Grinning triumphantly, the Doctor took hold of her hand and tugged her along.

Rose, now looking down and mumbling incoherent words, followed his lead without resistance.

"They weren't _that_ ugly..." she muttered after a while, causing the Doctor to shake his head in disbelief.

"Women and shoes... _Typical!_"

~*~

It took them another ten minutes to find the information room. The Doctor used the sonic screwdriver to open the door and was glad it was more than enough to get around the biometric security measures. He wasn't that keen on getting someone's eye and finger to open it, after all...

Looking in glee at the room full of electronic wonders, he ignored Rose's groan of annoyance and began to tell her every little detail about the machines. "Best archiving program you can find these days,"the Doctor said, as he sat down on one of the numerous seats in front of the computers to work. "The TARDIS has a similar one! Oh, it's far more advanced and I perfected it, but it's based on the same program. The algorithmic language had been developed in the 27th century by a nice chap named Sheffield-Corks. Of course I helped him here and there, gave him a few pointers... but nevertheless a brilliant little man! And little he was... didn't even reach my shoulders! I was still big ears and daft face then... Anyway! So, I met him and he said a really funny thing about-"

The Doctor, so engrossed in his story, didn't realise that Rose stopped listening to him at the word 'algorithmic'. It wasn't like she didn't understand what he told her, but simply that her brain automatically shut down whenever he began one of his technical explanations. The Doctor once said that happened because she didn't want to learn anything new but Rose knew better; it was a self protection mechanism to protect her brain from overload. Unfortunately, when the Time Lord once tried to explain why this occurred, in the end, the exact same thing happened... her brain shut down again.

Wandering around the room, Rose still ignored the Doctor's endless chatter and inspected the little glass cabinets lined up on the walls. They were full of forgotten machines from hundreds of years ago. Rose felt sad, seeing them unused and dusty. She didn't know if it was because of the Doctor's love for technical things or because she lived in a living machine, but Rose began to see mechanical gadgets as more than helpful objects. Everything suddenly seemed to have a soul to her... and the London girl caught herself more than a few times petting parts of the TARDIS. Of course, Rose knew the old girl was alive so it wasn't that strange, but nevertheless... different for _her_.

"Ah, the remains of old times."

Rose jumped when she suddenly heard the Doctor's voice behind her. Turning around, she looked into his grinning face.

"Nothing tells history better than those who lived in it... but you already know that, I suppose," he added in a tender voice as he laid his hand on the cabinet's cool surface.

"Yeah. Charles Dickens, my parents' wedding, Queen Victoria... In school I had never been very interested in history. It was just another boring subject. But _this_! Seeing all this, living among people from the past and future... Did I ever thank you?" Rose asked, turning to him and taking both of his hands, the one he put against the glass before, slightly cooler to touch than the other. "Have I ever thanked you for this amazing life?"

The Doctor kissed both of her hands. "Not everything is great, though. The monsters,near death experiences. It's exciting, yes, but... doesn't it scare you to death sometimes?"

"Of course, but... _you_ are with me, after all. As long as you are by my side, I'm not scared of anything."

"Oh, we'll see about that when we visit Abalaridiridon, planet of the monster insects!" the Doctor said smugly.

"You are impossible!" Rose said, swatting his arm and laughing in response. "Here we are, having one of _those_ moments and you go and talk about monster insects!"

"Destroyer of the Fluffiest Fluff Moments, that's me. Hello!" he answered, waving and grinning like the maniac he was.

"Oh, stop it you! What about your search? Did you find anything?"

"Yep!" the Doctor said, popping the 'p'. "I have found the password!"

"The... password," Rose repeated, unable to feign excitement.

"Yup! Wasn't that easy... who would chose 'lullaby' for a password, anyway? That woman is really strange... Anyway! The information we need could be in any of those computers, so I'm going to need your help."

Glad to be of _some_ use, Rose smiled and asked, "What do you want me to do?"

"The program works just like the search engines you know from home. Search for blueprints, contracts and the like."

"Roger that!" Rose said and saluted.

The Doctor cringed at the gesture and said with faint annoyance, "No saluting, please." But he grinned when Rose stuck her tongue out at him.

Together they began to search system after system for anything suspicious. After a while, Rose found some plans and maps of the area, as well as a list of names.

"Doctor!" she said after taking a closer look at the list. "You... you won't believe it... that's disgusting!"

The Doctor, alarmed by the sound of pure loathing in her voice, stepped over to her. "Show me."

"See this list? The names and ages of hundreds of citizens are written on it. Doctor... she is planning to use children for the digging!" Her anger and disgust were now evident in her eyes as well as her voice. Those brown orbs, into which he so loved to stare, were now burning like fire with a shimmering gold.. Even Rose's skin began to change to a more golden colour.

The Doctor swallowed hard. As much as he hated the priestess's plan, he was far more disturbed to see the Vortex gaining more and more control over the body of his companion..

"Say something!" Rose demanded, sounding less and less like the woman he knew.

"I... yes! Of course, we have do something about it. I... I think, we have enough evidence for Rondo to put his plan into action. I have also found some letters and contracts on the other computers. That should be enough, yes," he said nervously seeing her eyes still glowing like golden fire. "Rose, I... Are you alright?"

His question seemed to trigger something in Rose, as if her own consciousness suddenly became aware of an intrusion inside her mind. Shaking her head as if getting water out of her ears, Rose turned her head back to the Doctor, the golden glow now replaced by a look of sheer confusion. "W-What?"

Grinning, he pulled the confused woman into his arms and held her tightly.

"Doctor?" he heard her asking into his chest, her voice muffled by the fabric of his jacket.

"Nothing," the Doctor answered and pulled back slightly to look into her brown eyes again. "Nothing at all."

Still grinning, he jumped over to the machines to print what they had found. Having done that, he ran back to Rose and pulled a little silver ball out of his jacket. "We've got work to do. Allons-y, Rose Tyler!"

~*~

"Guards! _Guards!_" the hysterical priestess screamed, looking in disbelief at the man invading the privacy of her bath. "_GUARDS!_"

"No matter the situation, there is no need to shout," Jack said, grinning and unaware that he was quoting just another villain the Doctor and Rose encountered mere months before. "They can't hear you anyway, Kitty Kat."

"How- How dare you?! You little... I should have killed you when I had the chance!" she screamed once again. She climbed out of the giant whirlpool, not even trying to hide her body from the man's eyes.

"Fat good that would do you," Jack muttered under his breath before smirking once again at the raging woman. "Sorry to tell you, Kitty Kat, but your regency is coming to an early end."

"Hah! How do you plan to do that? Everyone loves me! No one would dare to stand in my way! No one knows the truth!"

"Sorry to break it to you, but that won't be the case any more," said another voice from the doorway. Rondo stepped into the room and looked over at Jack. "The Doctor and Rose have found everything. My men are on their way."

"What?!" the priestess screeched, the two men flinching at her high-pitched voice. "How dare you?! How dare you to-"

Stopping in mid sentence, the woman looked wide-eyed at something behind Jack. A look of pure terror on her face, she touched her throat as if making sure it was still there.

Confused by her behaviour, the Time Agent turned around. "Wha-? Rose!"

His friend stood inside the doorway, looking not a thing like the woman he knew. Her whole body emitted a golden light. Tendrils of what looked like golden smoke came out of her eyes and Jack knew at once that this terrible power was what kept him alive... what had saved his life so many times... and it scared him to death.

~*~

The Doctor and Rose were just on their way to Jack and Rondo when they heard the voice of the very person they intended to fight.

"_You little... I should have killed you when I had the chance!"_

"Oho! Feisty that one!" the Doctor said grinning, but his smile vanished when he saw the look in Rose's eyes. Her brown eyes were now once again hidden behind the golden glow, and looked motionless ahead.

The Doctor felt the terror rising in his body. He grabbed Rose by her shoulders and stared into her eyes. "Rose! you've got to focus! Do you hear me? Rose!"

She made no indication of even hearing him, and he began to lightly shake her. "Come on! You are stronger than this! Rose! _Rose!_"

She suddenly looked at him when she heard him scream her name.. A smirk, so unlike the smile he knew, broke out on her face. When she opened her mouth to speak, an unearthly voice convinced him that _this_ was no longer his lover.

"Hello, Doctor," the voice said, causing him to shiver in fear. Powerful... it sounded so _powerful_.

"What have you done to her?" the Doctor asked, his hands falling limply to his sides.

Tilting her head, 'Rose' answered him. "But she is just here, Doctor... I didn't do anything."

"You said you wanted to watch. You wanted to experience life _watching_." His voice was dangerously low, his fists clenched on his sides. "You took over her body. You weren't supposed to do that!" he spit out, his body trembling with suppressed rage.

"Do you really think I would sit inside that confusing mind of hers and just watch?" Laughing coldly, she gently touched his face with two fingers hot enough to burn his skin.

"I'm going to stop you," the Doctor said slowly, his eyes holding the storm that earned him one of his titles. "I don't know how, I don't know when, but you are going to pay for touching her!"

Looking curiously at him, she tilted her head to the side. "A Time Lord in love... what an odd thing to see. And _so_ vulnerable..." She brushed her fingertips along his cheek, leaving a red trace behind. When the Doctor made no indication of feeling the pain, she laughed. "And you know it! You know how weak you are when she is by your side! All the sacrifices you made, yet she is the one thing you will never give up. For no price in the universe..."

"She keeps me fighting," the Time Lord responded, his voice no more than a whisper.

"Fighting against what, Doctor? Daleks, Cybermen and other creatures? Or rather the realisation that Rose is a mere human and going to leave you some day?" When he didn't answer but just glared at her, she sighed. "Whatever! I didn't come out to chat. Bye bye!" she said, and with a wave of her hand, the Doctor flew against the wall. Gritting his teeth, he tried vainly to move his arms and legs as he stood pinned upright and motionless.

"Don't sweat it," Rose said while walking past him. "I'm too powerful for you."

The Doctor groaned in frustration when he struggled against the invisible force holding him. He had no other choice but to let her go...

~*~

"Rose?" Rondo asked staring confusedly at the being in front of him. "But, I don't understand, I thought she was human?"

"She is," answered Jack through gritted teeth. "But that's not _her_. He told me, it wasn't that bad... said it would be alright... and now _this_."

The figure in the doorway smirked at him. "Don't be so hard on the poor Time Lord," she said, the fire inside her eyes flashing at him. "She did good to save you. The universe is going to need you, Jack Harkness. More than you will ever know..."

"What have you done to her? Where is she?!" Jack spit out, still unable to accept that _this _saved his life.

Still smirking, Rose stepped towards him. "She is still here. Don't worry too much... I would never hurt her. We merely changed places," the creature explained and ran two fingers along his cheek, just like she did with the Doctor. Jack winced at the contact.

"Why?" he asked weakly, his voice reduced to a whisper at the sight of such power.

"Because I have to do what she is unable to," she whispered back and looked at the priestess, who now cowered in the corner in fear.

A cold look appeared on Rose's face and Jack knew what she meant. "No," he said, his voice gaining strength again. "There is no need to do that! She is going to be imprisoned! There is no need to-"

"Shh!" the creature hushed him with a finger to his lips. "She killed. She planned to kill more. She wanted to enslave children... A few years in prison wouldn't be enough. She must be destroyed." The expression on her face suddenly vanished and a sad look appeared on her face. "Poor Rose is so sad... No one should be so sad..." And with a short movement of her hand, Jack, too, was pressed against the wall. Rondo gasped when he found he, too, was unable to move even a finger.

"No interruptions," Rose said and moved towards the trembling priestess.

"Please, no!" the cowering woman exclaimed while pressing her body harder against the wall. "You don't understand! I had no choice! Please... no! _Please!_ Terrible things will happen, if-"

"Silence!" Rose commanded, and the priestess once again was rendered mute."You have to pay for your crimes." Like mere months ago when facing the Daleks, Rose held up her hand and said, "Vanish."

The priestess opened her mouth for a last, silent scream before her body dissolved into nothingness.

"No..." Jack whispered, when the light vanished from Rose and the hold on his body disappeared. Rose turned slowly around, confusion evident in her eyes. She mouthed his name before sinking down to the floor. Jack jumped forward to catch her and glared as he heard the footsteps of the Doctor approaching the room.

~*~

The Time Lord stared in pure terror at the figure in Jack's arms. "Oh no... please, no," he whispered, when he slowly went to his friends.

"She's alright. Unconscious, but unhurt as far as I can tell," Jack said, glaring at him. The Doctor swallowed hard at the venom in the other man's voice.

"Jack, I-"

"Not now," Jack interrupted him and looked to the right. Following his gaze, the Doctor saw Rondo lying on the floor and staring at them.

"What are you... What is _she_?!" he screamed and crawled back when the Time Lord made to go to him. "Stay away from me! You are monsters! With a wave of her hand, she... _Monsters!_"

Turning back to Jack, the Doctor looked sadly at him. "I think we have overstayed our welcome here. We should go before the guards with torches and pitchforks arrive." Seeing that his poor attempt of a joke failed miserably, the Doctor sighed and bent down to pick up Rose. Cradling her in his arms, he gently kissed her forehead and without a last glance at the room, they left.

Rondo, still shocked by recent events, looked after them with open mouth. He didn't hear his people calling for him over his headphone...

~*~

While going back to the TARDIS, Rose woke up a few times but quickly fell asleep again after being soothed by the Doctor telling her everything was alright.

The streets were filled with people now that everyone had heard about the commotion in the palace. The three outsiders made a strange picture, two men carrying an unconscious woman, yet no one took notice of them. Jack stayed silent the entire way and the Doctor feared what had to come once they entered the TARDIS and Rose was safely put to bed.

~*~

"Stay with me..." Rose murmured sleepily when the Doctor pulled the blanket over her exhausted form.

"I'm sorry, I can't," the Doctor answered, smiling at her. "You have to sleep and you know what happens when I'm lying in bed with you... "

He winked at her before glancing over at the door, where Jack stood and waited for him. "I also have to take care of a few things... But I'm going to make up for it tomorrow. Promise." Brushing a few strands of hair out of her face, the Doctor smiled when Rose sighed and was fast asleep again.

With a last loving glance at her, he turned around and followed Jack out of the room.

Silently, they walked beside each other until they entered the library, where Jack closed the door behind them. Seated in one of the more comfortable armchairs the TARDIS had to offer, the Doctor folded his hands and awaited the storm that was sure to come.

"You lied to me," Jack said in a surprisingly calm voice, still facing the door. "You lied to me and it killed."

"I didn't lie, I just didn't tell you _everything_." Catching the other man's look, the Doctor fell into silence..

"Yeah, you are good at that." Jack laughed wistfully and turned to face him. "Never telling anything..."

"It wasn't just that, Jack," the Doctor said. "I didn't expect her to-"

"To what?! To kill?!" His voice rising for the first time, Jack turned around to the door again and slammed his fists against it. "This thing inside of her... this thing is evil and you didn't tell. I can understand that you didn't tell Rose. I can also understand that you can't do anything at the moment... that it's too strong for you... but what I _don't _understand is why you didn't tell _me_?! Why didn't you tell me, it was able to take over Rose's body? _Why?!_" Jack screamed the last word at the top of his lungs.

Sitting unfazed by his friend's outburst, the Doctor rested his elbows on his legs and leaned forward. "I didn't tell you because I honestly didn't know. I didn't expect her... _it_... to become that strong in such a short time."

"But you still knew this could happen. Doc... I thought you trusted me," Jack said, his voice now in its normal volume again, and sat down in a chair next to the Time Lord.

"I do. I honestly do, but... this is complicated."

"Then uncomplicate it," Jack said solemnly and leaned back inside his chair.

Sighing, the Doctor also leaned back. "Alright. Don't have much of a choice, I suppose... The thing is... the part of the Vortex's energy inside of Rose is _not _purely evil." Catching the other man's sceptical look, the Doctor took a deep breath and continued. "Hard to believe, I know, but when the Vortex... _Oh_, let's just call it Bad Wolf. So, when the Bad Wolf developed a consciousness inside of Rose's mind, it also began to become part of her. After hours of research I found out that the Vortex, when exposed to brainwaves, begins to change. That's what happened here. The Bad Wolf feels what Rose feels."

"But Rose isn't a killer. No matter the situation, she would never-"

"She would. She already did in fact. The Daleks... that wasn't the Vortex but _her_, her alone. In the right situation, everyone would be ready to kill."

"Daleks don't count," Jack murmured, causing the Doctor to look at him with disapproval.

"Life is life, Jack. A very important lesson to learn... especially for you humans. But back to topic. The thing that makes the Bad Wolf so dangerous is her lack of conscience. Although it's able to think, it doesn't know what's right and wrong. Much like a little child, it doesn't have enough experience in life to know what it should and shouldn't do. I hoped it wouldn't gain enough strength to control Rose's body until it knew about that, but-"

"Wait a moment," Jack interrupted him. "Do you really mean to tell me, that _thing _is nothing more than a child?"

"A rather stupid comparison, but yes, you can see it as that. It reacted to Rose's feelings when she found out about the priestess' plan to use children and acted for it, the most reasonable way..."

"It killed..." Jack whispered.

"Exactly. Of course, Rose wouldn't have done the same thing, but right now the Vortex only shares her feelings and memories with her. Well, it _is_ able to see all of time and space but I think that ability is weakened as long as it resides in a body. It _does_ have a certain nastiness about it, though..." The Doctor's look darkened when he thought about the words of the Vortex. "That's what power does to you, I suppose..."

"Is she... going to remember?"

The Doctor shook his head. "I don't think so. The Bad Wolf wouldn't want her to, anyway."

"What are we going to tell her?" Jack asked.

"That one of the guards sedated her and we had to leave the planet in a hurry because you insulted the Oscurians," the Time Lord replied, winking.

"Yeah, right!" Jack said, grinning. "That's something _you_ would do, Doc. This new regeneration of yours is way too cheeky for my taste..."

The Doctor rolled his eyes and said, "_Oh_, you love it."

"You know I do."

Laughing, the men talked for the rest of the evening about their plans for tomorrow.

~*~

"So, where are we off to, then?" Rose asked her lover excitedly while he navigated the TARDIS in the control room.

"Back to Oscuria but a few hundred years later. I'm interested in how the planet turned out."

With a sudden lurch and a shudder, the TARDIS came to a stop and Jack ran over to the doors.

Curious, he pulled them open, but his grin froze on his face.

"What the hell..."

When the Doctor and Rose went over to him, they, too, were rendered speechless. Where once stood the proud capital city of Oscuria, now was only barren land. No plants, no creatures, no life. Only ruins of a long forgotten civilisation and the scent of death remained behind...

~*~

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	6. Chapter 6

"That's bad... that's really, really bad," the Doctor murmured, staring into space. He nearly jumped when Rose came up behind him and encircled his waist with her arms.

"Do you know what happened here?" she asked, her voice full of concern.

"Well, I know it wasn't supposed to be like this... Oscuria was supposed to have a brilliant future," he answered her, rubbing his chin. "But I didn't feel anything... It wasn't a fixed point in time. And yet... such an extreme change... That's impossible! Completely impossible... And we didn't encounter any Reapers when-" he stopped abruptly, afraid of revealing anything that happened with Bad Wolf.

"When what?" Rose asked him.

The Doctor whirled around and went over to Jack who was checking the TARDIS's instruments. "Did you find anything?"

"You mean besides radioactive ground and twenty-seven different toxins in the air? Nope, nothing," Jack answered distractedly while still hammering on the keyboard.

The Doctor ran his hands through his hair and began to pace around the room. "What could have caused this? What could have possible happened to... The energy source maybe? But the priestess couldn't have done it... Someone else? Or was it something else entirely?" he asked himself, becoming more and more oblivious to the other people in the room.

"Doc?" Jack asked, vainly attempting to get his attention.

"An extreme change in atmosphere... and a sun is gone! I didn't realise it before... A bomb? Maybe an invasion gone wrong... Wouldn't be the first time. But this extreme-"

"Doc!" Jack now screamed, making the Time Lord jump.

"Wha-? What is it? I'm not deaf, you know."  
"Could have fooled me..." Jack muttered, grinning. "Look, the priestess said 'Terrible things would happen,' and that she 'had no choice.' I thought she just wanted to... well, get away with everything, but now..."

"Doesn't seem to be coincidence," the Doctor said, one eyebrow arching upwards.

"Exactly. If we could find out who told her to do it... But going back in time would be too dangerous, right?"

The Doctor nodded. "At least to Rondo's timeline it would be. An accidental meeting and BAM! A big, ugly paradox is biting us right in our-"

"What about that Oracle? You said it was strange that someone was able to predict our arrival," Rose threw in, her brow furrowed in deepest thought. "Are there _real_ prophecies, Doctor?"

"Well, I encountered a few species in my life who have had an amazing grasp on fortune telling, but their 'prophecies' are often enigmatic and never that accurate. Whoever foretold our being here had his information from _other _sources..."

"You mean like a time traveller?" Jack asked.

"That or we somehow 'foretold' it ourselves. Whatever it may be, it seems like we have no choice but to go back in time... Jack, did Rondo tell you the exact date?"

"Nope, just that it happened a few hundred years ago."

"Great. Just great," the Doctor muttered. "How are we supposed to find that out?"

"I suppose, there is nothing like the 'Chamber of Prophecies' like in Harry Potter, is there?" Rose asked, becoming nervous when the Doctor simply stared at her. "I know it's ridiculous! You don't have to look at me like that!"

A smile slowly crept onto the Doctor's face. He grabbed Rose by her shoulders and gave her a kiss that made even Jack blush. "Rose Tyler, you are brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!"

Rose, still dazed by the kiss, shook her head quickly from side to side and stared wide-eyed at him. "Don't tell me there really _is_ one..."

"Well, not a chamber exactly but Oscuria had been part of the Nanaramarinaluga Alliance, NA for short, and they stored every single information bit that could ever be important to its member planets. I _think_ they have a special room for prophecies and predictions," the Doctor answered, a massive grin now splitting his face.

"And I guess they _don't_ let just anyone enter who wants to see them, eh?" Jack asked, also grinning.

"Nope! The whole thing is top secret. We will have to break in! Isn't that great?" the Doctor asked, jumping over to the console and beginning to steer the TARDIS to their next destination.

Jack and Rose looked at each other, already seeing themselves hanging on chains in yet another dungeon.

~*~

"Whoa! This is great, Doc!" Jack exclaimed, looking at the NA headquarters.

The whole building looked like three gigantic crystals reaching into the sky. Its surface reflected the light of the orange sun, projecting little sparkles of light onto the ground. The rest of the planet was covered by other crystal buildings and reflecting materials. Even the exotic plants seemed to have a light of their own.

Rose covered her eyes. "This planet is so... bright."

"Yep, the inhabitants love everything that shines. By the way, you two aren't wearing jewellery or watches or anything shiny... right?" the Doctor asked, inspecting ears, necks and wrists with his eyes.

"No, but... why? They aren't like magpies and stealing everything shiny, yeah?" Rose joked just as a creature with huge wings and black feathers walked past her. "Forget I asked, " she mumbled under her breath.

The Doctor grinned at her. "They are descendants of your planet's magpies. You don't really have to worry about them stealing your things, though. They just get rather distracted staring at shiny things which makes it pretty difficult to talk to one while wearing them."

"You know, I have met lots of different creatures after I met you but _this _is _really _weird_,_" Rose said, looking at two other feathered persons sitting on top of a statue and reading newspapers. "Did you ever meet creatures like this, Jack?" When no one answered, Rose turned around to look for him. "Jack?"

"Oh, there he is, over there," the Doctor said, pointing to his friend. The Time Agent stood, one hand propping him against the wall, in front of a 'magpie' doing the one thing he did best - flirt.

"I don't believe it," Rose groaned. "Is there anyone in the whole universe Jack _doesn't_ want to shag?!"

"I wouldn't count on it," the Doctor answered. "Remember when we met that slime creature Goob?"

"Yes, but what-... Wait, you don't mean..." The Doctor nodded and Rose groaned again. "But... _how_?"

"Believe me, Rose Tyler, as curious as I am, that's one of the few things I _don't_ want to know!"

Rose grinned at him, tongue peeking out between her teeth. "Not _that_ flexible, eh?" she asked, bumping his shoulder with her own.

"Rassilon, no!" The Doctor laughed and offered his arm to her. "May I escort you over to our dear friend, Dame Rose?"

Giggling, she accepted. "You may, Sir Doctor."

~*~

"So... do you want to show me your nest? I promise you, it's going to be worth your while!" Jack purred into the magpie's ear.

The creature giggled in turn, mesmerised by Jack's shining teeth. "I would love to but I think my groom would mind..."

"Your... groom?" Jack asked, more confused by her choice of words than the fact she was actually taken.

"Yes, her _groom_!" an angry voice said behind Jack.

Swallowing, the Time Agent turned around to look into the face of another black feathered creature. Putting on his most charming smile, he offered his hand. "Nice to meet you! Figures that such a beautiful creature like your wife has such a handsome husband!"

"I don't know the meaning of 'wife' and 'husband,' but you better leave my bride alone! We are not interested in the likes of humans!" the 'man' clacked angrily with his beak. "Got it, human?"

"Well-"

"Jack!" he heard Rose's voice from behind the angry magpie. "There you are! You know, you are not allowed to go out alone," she said after reaching him, taking his hand with one of her own and petting his hair with the other.

"W-What?" Jack asked, confused by her strange behaviour.

"Aw, you forgot it again? Poor sweetheart! Doctor, over here!" She motioned the Doctor over to them.

"Ah, there he is! Our lost patient! I'm terribly sorry for the inconvenience! The poor boy is completely mad. Thank you for your help!" the Doctor said, grinning broadly and shaking both creatures' wings.

"That... That's quite alright. No problem at all," replied the man, scratching the underside of his beak.

"Yes, I didn't mind at all," the woman said, winking, unnoticed by her groom, at Jack.

The Doctor and Rose said goodbye and led the complaining Jack away from the birds.

"You didn't have to do that!" he groaned. "I could have easily had _both _of them!"

"Sorry to break it to you, but the man would have split your skull in half if it wasn't for us!" the Doctor retorted, shaking his head.

"You don't understand! A bit more of flashing teeth and-"

"Jack, we don't have time for this." Seeing the Doctor's grim and impatient expression, Jack kept his mouth shut.

Sliding her arm through the Doctor's, Rose grinned at him and said, "So, how do you plan to get in? Psychic paper?"

"Yep," the Doctor answered, popping the 'p'. "Don't think it's going to work, though. The guards probably have had a decent psychic training."

"So, you got a plan B?" Jack asked him.

"Nope, gonna make one up as I go." Grinning, he led the way to the building.

"Hello," he said in a high-pitched voice to the bored and human-looking guard. "I'm the Doctor and this-"

"The Doctor, finally!" the guard interrupted him happily. "We have awaited your arrival for days!"

"You... you have?" the Time Lord stammered, scratching his head.

"Of course! And you two have to be Jack and Rose. It's an honour to meet you!" he said, shaking the hands of both of them.

"It... It is?" Rose asked confused and the guard nodded excitedly.

"But... how did you know we were going to come?" Jack, in turn, wanted to know.

"The prophecy, of course!" Seeing their disbelieving faces, he scratched his head. "Of course, you can't know that. Oh, well... just go in and ask for Peter at the reception desk. He is going to show you what you came here for."

When the doors closed behind them, the Doctor turned to his friends. "_That_ was _way_ too easy."

"So, you still expect us having to run?" Rose asked, tongue between teeth.

"Oh, I do hope so! How else are we going to work off all the chips we are eating all the time?" the Doctor answered grinning.

Rose squinted her eyes at him. "Do you mean to tell me that I'm fat?"

"_Oh_, careful, Doc!" Jack said, smiling at the squirming Doctor.

"I didn't mean it like that. Course not... it's just... _I_ have to keep my girlish figure somehow!"

"So, you think that you are prettier than me?" Rose asked, arching one eyebrow and crossing her arms.

"Roooose..." the Doctor groaned and Rose dropped her serious attitude to break out into giggles.

"Just kidding! Don't worry about it," she said, leaning up to kiss his cheek.

"You two are too cute!" Jack exclaimed and drew both of them into a bear hug.

Someone cleared his throat behind them. "May I help you?" said a woman with lilac skin from the reception desk.

"Oh, yes!" the Doctor answered, breaking out of Jack's hug. "We are here to see Peter."

"Ah, you are the Doctor I presume?" The Time Lord nodded. "Mr. Peter is on floor 52, room 198."

"Thank you!" the Doctor said and went smiling back to his friends. At least he smiled until he saw Rose's grim face and Jack's wide grin.

"You just flirted with that woman, didn't you?!" she said, feigning a snappish voice.

The Doctor groaned. "Rose!"

~*~

Mr. Peter was a little man who looked human despite the scales which replaced skin in a few places. He cheerfully welcomed the three and offered them Hanceldonian Fire Whiskey which reminded Rose of the slime that always came out of her deceased granddad's nose whenever he sneezed. They politely declined.

"The prophecy... yes," Mr Peter said, eyeing his guests taking seats in front of him. "Our archives have dozens of different predictions, made all over the universe. The one that told us about your arrival had been made by a gypsy two hundred years ago. You may have heard of her... Madame Rosemarie was quite famous, after all."

"Madame Rosemarie?! _That_ Madame Rosemarie?!" Jack asked excitedly, gripping the armrests on both sides of his chair. "And she had made a prophecy about _us_? Amazing!"

Rose, puzzled about Jack's extreme excitement while being dressed and outside of a bedroom, turned to the Doctor. "Do you know her, too?"

The Doctor shook his head no. "Never heard of her. But I have never been that interested in fortune telling... It's a science depending more on faith than facts. Not really my thing..."

"You really don't know her?! She was a genius! Warned a whole planet about some global catastrophe and saved a whole galaxy in the process! And if it is true what they say, then she was quite beautiful, too," Jack said, answering Rose's silent question about his excitement.

Mr Peter looked appraisingly at Jack. "That pretty much sums it up. Although her prophecies aren't great in number, what predictions she made influenced whole civilisations in that way."

"And the one about us? What did she say?" the Doctor asked.

"'In exactly two hundred years of time, the Doctor, just 'the Doctor,' will come and seek information in this very place. His success is of vital importance and he has to get whatever he wants.' These are her exact words. Thousands of people witnessed the prophecy, so we are certain about its accuracy."

"'Get whatever he wants', eh?" the Doctor repeated, grinning. "Do you have banana smoothies here?"

~*~

After the Doctor drank enough smoothies to fill the bladders of three elephants (or so it seemed to Rose), Mr. Peter lead them to the prophecy room where they searched through every prophecy ever made on Oscuria.

"I don't understand why they aren't using computers for this!" Rose said angrily, laying another two-page-long prophecy on the 'useless' stack.

"They are pretty antiquated here... or did you see anything electronic since our arrival? Some races are like that." Jack answered, fishing another paper out of the box.

"How many races live here anyway? Apart from the magpies, I didn't see two of the same species..."

The Doctor, specs in place, looked over his very own 'useless' pile at her. "The planet is a little like a crossroad. There are thousands of visitors per day and you know how it is... they meet someone, fall in love, children are born... In short, there are very few pure blooded creatures living here. You have seen Mr. Peter. Half human, half reptilian species, I suspect. That's also why the magpies hate humans that much... your lot had been the first to invade this planet, spreading your genes throughout the population as you have done time and time before."

Rose added another paper of predictions and enigmatic predications to the stack and sighed deeply. "Is that all what we humans are going to do? Conquer planets over and over again?"

"And _dancing_! Don't forget the dancing!" the Doctor said, winking at Rose and causing Jack to snort with laughter. "But your people will learn with given time how to solve matters without shedding blood. Well... of course they don't manage to win planets over with a smile and handshake, but because of your great numbers, most planets don't resist invasion..."

"You make it sound like it's alright to take over other people's homes," Rose said darkly, staring at her nails.

The Doctor, leaning back in his chair, took off his specs to clean them with a cloth. "Well, of course it's not _alright, _but it is the course of things. What would the universe be if people didn't leave their planets to explore? Millions of species wouldn't exist! Technology would just stop one day! Whole galaxies would stay uninhabited! Dozens of-"

"Doc," Jack interrupted him, holding up his hand. "I think she got the picture."

Looking over at Rose, the Doctor saw a half annoyed, half amused expression on her face. "Right. Babbling... Sorry!" he said, clearing his throat. "Whatever! Let's get on with our work, shall we?"

~*~

When Rose finally found the real one, she nearly cried from happiness. As fun as it seemed to sort through thousands of different predictions, each one stranger and more mysterious than the others, five hours of searching without finding _anything_ of use was enough to annoy even the Doctor, who read two novels before breakfast without batting an eyelash. He nearly squeezed his lover to death and even hugged Jack, who in turn was more than happy to return the gesture.

"Finally! Finally, finally, finally!" the Doctor said and grinning he took the paper out of Rose's hand. "Now, let's see... Ah, yes, the exact date. There it is... Now, we should be able to find some clues. I bet this-" He took another look at the paper. "'Zanabadorian R. Nox' will be able to tell us more..."

"Back to the TARDIS?" Rose asked grinning.

"Back to the TARDIS!" The Doctor took her hand and led her back out of the building. Jack, who followed them, eyed his two friends with a worried look. As normal and happy as they seemed to be at the moment, he couldn't help but think that something was very wrong with them...

~*~

"So, are we going right away?" Rose asked once they safely stood inside the console room.

The Doctor smiled at her and leaned forward to kiss her forehead. "Nope, I have to do some research first. Why don't you rest awhile? I promised you some... _dancing, _after all. Can't have you falling asleep in the middle of it."

"I'm not the one who is nine hundred years old," Rose teased, bumping his shoulder with her own. "We will see how long you can keep up with me, old man."

"Old man?! Rose Tyler, I will let you know that for a Time Lord, I'm barely middle-aged. Thank you very much."

"And what is that white hair doing on your head?" Rose laughed hysterically when the Doctor at once drew a mirror out of his pocket and hastily searched through his hair. "You are _so_ vain!"

"Beauty has to come from somewhere, Rose," Jack pointed out, running a hand through his hair and showing her his 'killer-smile' before turning to the Doctor. "By the way, Doc, she is pulling your leg. No white hair anywhere."

The Doctor stopped abruptly, looked over at them and cleared his throat. With a light blush on his cheeks, he put the mirror away. "Right. Of course... I knew that!" Seeing their smirking faces, he ran a hand through his untidy hair again. "Ehm, right... research. I'm in the library if you need me." And with that he stalked off.

Grinning, Jack laid an arm around Rose. "Fancy a cup of tea?"

~*~

When the Doctor and Rose were still travelling alone, Rose often missed her friends at home. As much as she loved to talk to the Doctor, there were still things she just _couldn't_ tell him. Like what their hugs did to her when they still weren't a couple or how much she loved to watch him working on the TARDIS. Other topics included girly things like what to wear or how cute this and that guy was in this and that film. Yes, she had missed all these little girl to girl talks... until Jack joined them. Although male, he had an amazing grasp of being... female.

"Robbie Williams? Never heard of him... Does he have a nice bum?" Jack asked grinning while putting the kettle on.

Rose laughed. "'Course you haven't heard of him! He is pretty famous in my time... Not really my type but yes, he does have a nice bum," she said giggling before taking another bagel off the plate. "How is it in the 51st century? Many celebrities?"

"Of course! From all over the universe. I never had much time for things like that, though. Being a Time Agent takes, despite most people's belief, a _lot_ of time. I took the chance sometimes to visit some famous persons from the past. Marilyn Monroe... now _that_ was a woman!"

Rose stared at him, bagel frozen on its way to her mouth. "Marilyn Monroe?! _That _Marilyn Monroe?!" she asked astonished before squinting her eyes at him. "You didn't sleep with her, did you?"

"Wish I could say yes, but... no. That would have been too dangerous. I was just one of many admirers in the crowd."

They stayed silent while Jack filled their cups with hot water. "Say, Rose, you and the Doctor... is everything alright?" Jack asked, looking inquiringly at her.

Rose sighed deeply. "I thought you would notice something... Nothing is really wrong, we just... it's complicated."

"Then uncomplicate it," Jack said grinning, repeating the same words he has said to the Doctor just one day ago.

"I..." Rose started and then groaned. "He doesn't say it, alright?! I don't know why but... he just can't say 'I love you'."

Jack laid a hand over her own on the table. "And you're worried about that? About his true feelings?"

"Of course I am! I mean... wouldn't you be?"

"I would... if we were talking about anyone else but him. You know how Mr. 'impressive Time Lord' is, Rose. He's very proud about his race and hates to be compared to humans," Jack answered, leaning back in his chair.

"But there are other races who say it, right? It's not a completely human thing."

"Well, of course some are saying it but most of them never express their feelings with words. It seems too insignificant to them to say it out loud compared to showing it."

"But how can they be sure? How can _I_ be sure? Sometimes I..." Sadly, Rose looked down on the table. "Sometimes I think we are more like sexfriends than a real couple."

"Rose..." Jack started before standing up and sitting down beside her. Gently he laid an arm around her shoulders. "I might be a slut…" He grinned when Rose chuckled. "But I recognise love when I see it and the Doctor loves you more than anything else in the universe. You can trust me on that."

Tongue between teeth, she grinned at him. "That's the same thing you said when you made me jump into a shrub of stinging nettle."

"Oi! You did have a nice time when the Doctor put lotion all over your body, right?" he asked, satisfied when a faint blush grazed her cheeks.

"You bet!"

~*~

When the Doctor, after hours of research about Oscuria and missing paradoxes, returned to their bedroom, he was met with a sight he would remember for the rest of his life. Rose, clad in a skimpy, pink satin nightdress, lay snoring on their bed. With her limbs spread widely apart from her body, open book resting on her chest and mouth wide open, she made the funniest sight the Doctor had ever seen and strangely enough also the sexiest one.

Grinning, he walked over to Rose and shook her gently. "Wakey wakey, sleepy head."

Rose groaned in her sleep and rolled over to her side, the book falling on the floor in the process.

"Roooose, we have a date for some naughty, sweaty and wonderfully tiring activities, remember?"

She just mumbled something incoherent and hugged her pillow.

The Doctor sighed. He hated to draw this card, but... "I've some double chocolate ice cream with your name on..."

Rose nearly hit him when she jumped up in bed. "Where?!" she asked excitedly but her face fell when she noticed his smirk. "Cheater..."

"Only way to get you up and about," the Doctor answered grinning. "Now... I think you didn't dress like that for ice cream, eh?"

Rose answered his question with a kiss and crawled on his lap. Pressing her groin against his own, she felt a beginning hardness. "Did you start without me?" Rose asked cheekily and began to nibble on the sensitive spot on his ear.

"Your snoring was so cute," the Doctor answered, eyes turning up when Rose bit his earlobe.

"I _don't_ snore," she started, pulling back to look into his eyes. "If you want to get into my pants tonight, I _don't_."

"Cheeky. Alright, you _don't_ snore like a bull." He moved his hands up her thighs. Reaching the hem of her nightgown, he slowly pulled it up and revealed her breasts to his eyes.

"_I'm_ cheeky?" With a glare, Rose took the hem of her nightgown out of his hands and finished his job by pulling it off. "I think I have to teach you a lesson, _Doctor_." On her last word, she pulled on his tie before loosening it. Slowly, she opened the knot and pulled it off.

"And how are you planning to do that?" the Doctor whispered into her ear. He gently began to nip and suck on her neck and Rose was almost certain she would have to explain to a grinning Jack the existence of a bruise on that exact spot the very next day.

Tie still secured between her fingertips, Rose began to run her fingers through his hair, exactly how he liked it, and pulled his head back to kiss him deeply. While battling with his tongue, she moved her hands over his arms until she found his wrists. Being completely engrossed in the kiss, the Doctor didn't notice Rose pulling his hands behind his back and binding them together with his own tie.

Grinning, Rose pulled back and looked triumphantly into a face with kiss-swollen lips, dishevelled hair and hooded eyes. "_That's _how I'm going to punish you!" she said, tongue between teeth.

Despite his Time Lord brain, the Doctor had trouble processing her words for a moment... until he noticed his bound hands. "What the...? Rose Tyler, untie me at once!" he demanded after part of his desire-clouded mind gave way to reason.

Without a word but grin still in place, Rose sank to her knees in front of him and opened his fly.

The Doctor sucked in a breath when she freed him and cool air came in contact with his now pulsing hard member.

If she was going to do what he was thinking of right now, the punishment wouldn't be so bad... in fact, wouldn't be bad at all, the Doctor thought to himself while Rose gently stroked him. But of course he couldn't be that lucky...

"Know what? I'm hungry!" Rose said, suddenly ceasing her ministrations. She stood up, walked over to her cupboard and put on a dressing gown. "I'm going to the kitchen to get something to eat... should take only fifteen..." She grinned wickedly. "… twenty minutes. Be right back!" And with a wave to the Doctor's gaping expression, she left the room.

The Time Lord stared at the closed door. "Whot?" he asked in a small voice. "Whot?!" he said again a little more loudly and groaned. "_Whot...?"_


	7. Chapter 7

montypython203: I'm answering here because of the age thing ;). I originally wanted to write it differently but my beta reader, who watched more classic who than me, told me to do it like that. I think it still makes sense because we don't know how much time passed for the Doctor between his 4th and 10th regeneration. For example: Even if hundred years passed, he could still be considered middle-aged because Time Lords don't age like we do.

This is just a theory of course so if you or anyone else knows another reference later in the series, please point it out! :)

Oh, and thanks for telling me about the spelling mistake! I thought I got everything, but... apparently not XD

Alright, on with the story.

~*~

"I faced the cruellest rulers in the universe! Fought against the meanest creatures you can and can't imagine! Withstood torture of all kinds and types but _you _beat all of it," the Doctor managed to exclaim between moans and groans.

Fifteen minutes passed, then twenty, while Rose grabbed a bite to eat. She had been gone thirty-two minutes and forty-six seconds exactly. All of this time, the Doctor sat patiently on the bed, knowing full well he would get no gratification tonight if he moved even an inch away from his place. It was one of their many sexual rituals that whoever initiated the act led their actions to the end. However, with his cold member standing erect but idle and no sign of Rose, the Doctor seriously considered changing the rules.

Although Rose had left some time ago, the Doctor's mind still reeled with all the possibilities she could have in mind for them tonight. He clenched his teeth when a picture of her in a fancy maid dress formed inside his head. His cock twitched at the thought of making love to her from behind while she called him "master" and moaned with pleasure.

The Doctor blushed at the thought - the word "master" alone should send shivers of disgust and fear through his body and not turn him on like it obviously did right now.

"I'm a pervert alright," the Doctor mumbled while wriggling back a little to seek a more comfortable position. While thousands of other pleasurable role-plays coursed through his mind, each one naughtier than the last, the Time Lord made a mental note to finally fulfill Jack's wish and visit that designer planet he was always raving about.

When Rose returned with a satisfied smirk on her face and a banana in her right hand, the Doctor knew whatever she had in mind couldn't be good.

"Sorry for taking this long, Doctor. Couldn't decide what to eat... until I spotted your very last banana," Rose said smugly, while peeling the fruit tentatively and slowly.

The Doctor stared at her with wide eyes and couldn't believe his ears. "Last?! Oh, no, Rose Tyler! No, no, no, no, no! Put down the fruit very slowly and leave your hands where I can see them!" he exclaimed nervously, gasping when instead of following his demand, Rose put the tip of the banana to her lips and licked around the top. The Doctor's groin tightened when he realised what she really had in store for him.

"I have been gone for thirty minutes and you _still_ have a hard-on... Did that big Time Lord brain of yours have naughty thoughts?" the London girl asked grinning, while taking off her nightgown and sitting down on a chair in front of him. The Doctor groaned at the sight of her rounded, pink-tipped breasts. She crossed her legs and put the yellow fruit once again to her lips, this time to lick up and down the side. "You are right, you know. Bananas are _goooood._" Her last word was more like a purr and sent shivers racing through the Time Lord's body.

"You are so mean," he breathed out, nervously wriggling on the bed.. He was desperate for some relief but one look into Rose's eyes told him that _this_ was just the beginning of her teasing.

She smiled at him and took half of the fruit into her mouth, sliding in and out a few times, while the Doctor moaned and gasped with every motion,

Rose grinned again at the desperate looking man in front of her. "You have been oh so right about the fruits from that planet….what was it's name?. Anyway, they are so much _harder,.._" The Doctor gritted his teeth. "…_bigger_…" He groaned and rubbed his bound wrists together in a vain attempt at freeing his hands. "…and more _delicious _than any other ones."

Glaring at his smug lover, the Doctor growled at her. "You know that what you are doing right now would be considered cruel and unusual punishment by many civilizations?"

Rose bent forward until her nose was just inches away from his own. "I think you already worked out how _you_ want to punish me, yeah?"

He had indeed worked out a plan that involved a pair of Jack's special handcuffs and lots of banana marmalade, but he didn't intend on telling her that right now. "What I would like to know," the Doctor said slowly, staring into her eyes as if facing the enemy, "-is how long exactly you intend to play this game, especially

since…" He looked down at her breasts and smirked at the sight of her hardened nipples. " …I can smell your own arousal. You might be trying to tease me but you are doing the exact same thing to yourself, aren't you?"

Rose bit her lip and looked to the side, too embarrassed to admit that he was right.

"I... I don't," she answered weakly, still avoiding his eyes, looking very much like a rabbit cornered by a predator.

The Time Lord's smile widened as he hissed in her ear. "My sense of smell is never wrong, Rose, and you know it. Let's stop this game and come to the..." he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, "…_interesting_ part."

When she suddenly looked up at him and grinned like a Cheshire cat, the Doctor knew he had once again underestimated the London girl. "Know what?" she smiled. " I don't think so, because _this_ is much more fun!" And with that she ate all of the tantalizing fruit right in front of his face.

The Doctor gaped at her. "You little... how could... Rose!"

Grinning impishly at him, Rose licked her lips. "That upset about the last banana? I _wonder _what I could do to make it up to you..."

"You do...? Oh... _oh!_" the Doctor exclaimed when he suddenly realised what she was aiming at. His face broke into a wide and slightly leering smile. "Well... I could think of _a few_ things..."

Rose tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes. "I am _not_ wearing the nurse costume again."

The Time Lord opened his mouth in shock, more at her declining his silent wish instead of reading his thoughts. "But you _love_ the nurse costume!"

"No, _you_ love it! I love the Wonder Woman one..."

The Doctor's eyes glazed as he lapsed into obviously deep thought. "Well, that could be fun, too...."

Rolling her eyes, Rose tossed the banana skin to the side and stepped forward until the Doctor's legs were positioned between her own. Running her fingers through his untidy hair, she brought his head up and pressed her lips against his. While the Doctor was once again distracted, she moved her hands to his wrists and freed them of his tie.

Breaking the kiss, Rose looked into his eyes and whispered, "Just fuck me, Doctor."

With a look of pure delight and joy, the Doctor grabbed Rose by her hips and threw her onto the bed. Her squeals were soon muffled by his lips and his body covering her own.

The Doctor's exploring hands soon found her knickers and vanished under them, making Rose gasp at the sudden contact of his cold fingers on her hot flesh.

Smiling at finding her wet and ready for him, the Time Lord began to kiss and lick (especially lick) her neck. "You really like my banana, eh?" he said between sucking on _that_ spot and rubbing his fingertips over her hot centre.

"Shut up," Rose returned breathlessly, her fingers busy opening his shirt. She gasped when the Doctor removed his hand to replace it with his hard and pulsing cock pushing against her now soaked undergarment. Another wriggle of his hips brought a moan from her lips. "Want me to get rid of that annoying little piece of clothing?" he growled against her ear, his low and rumbling voice a clear sign of his helpless arousal.

"Don't talk. Do it!" Rose nearly screamed when he pressed his cock against her covered crotch.

Without another word, the Doctor reached down and fisted the material in his hand, tearing them away from her body with one swift yank. He threw the torn cloth over his shoulder, then stilled against her body. Rose looked up at him with raised eyebrows. "What is it?" she asked, looking into his eyes, the pupils now black with desire.

He whispered in a dark, low voice. "Turn over."

Rose was processing exactly what he meant when it hit her. Blushing, she turned around to lie on her stomach before raising her body on all fours

The Doctor took hold of her hips and thrust into her from behind. Both of them moaned at the violent penetration, their bodies grinding together to quiet the painful throbbing in their loins.. Their sounds of pleasure and delight resounded in the room and the Doctor silently thanked the TARDIS for soundproofing the walls whenever Rose and he had some 'quality time'.

Pounding in and out of her, the Time Lord wondered how he ever managed to keep his hands off her for even a second. The wonderful feeling of him sliding in and out of her filled his entire being, pushing out all other sensations He felt more alive and himself making love to Rose than he did at any other time, even in the distant memories of his long-gone home world. The slight change in Rose's voice as she moaned encouragement to him indicated to the Doctor she was nearing her climax and he sped up his pace. The Doctor moved one of his hands under her body to gently massage the little bud of nerves.

Rose shuddered when she felt her orgasm fast approaching, and judging by the Doctor thrusting in and out of her like there was no tomorrow, she was almost certain he, too, was near his release.

Feeling wave after wave of pleasure overtake her, Rose came with a shout. The Doctor groaned as her inner walls tightened around him, milking his throbbing organ as he spilled his hot semen inside her. They collapsed panting on the bed, and it was several seconds before the Doctor was coherent enough to roll off her back. Lying side by side, they looked at each other and broke out into ridiculous laughter.

"That was great," Rose said and grinned at him, tongue peeking out between her teeth. "I like your banana the best!"

"Thanks to you, I will never be able to eat one again without thinking of sex!" the Doctor replied, returning her grin.

~*~

The Doctor lay next to her for a very long time, not sleeping... just watching over the woman he treasured most in the universe while she slept. What he knew he had to do next brought a sad and lonely expression to his face. Ever since he had left Jack and Rose in the console room, he had been running different plans through his mind to fix what Jack had called her 'hairy little problem.' He knew there was only one way to do it.

Knowing what both of his companions would say when he told them his plan, he decided not to tell them until he either had to do it or they found out on their own. Either way, he could already imagine how they would react...

Gently, he brushed his hand over Rose's cheek as she slept. To enter someone's mind without his or her permission was something he loathed.. Nothing else was as private and out of bounds as a person's thoughts. And yet, he knew that to violate Rose's mind was the only way to save her.

The Doctor laid both of his hands on her head and once again experienced the feelings raging there as he entered Rose's memories.

When he opened his eyes, he stood inside a basement and one look was enough to tell him which memory he had just entered. Hundreds of shop dummies stood inside the dark room, still motionless but, like the Time Lord knew all too well, would not remain so for much longer.

He remembered the day when he had first met Rose like it was just yesterday.

The frightened but amazingly bright young woman turned out to be so much more than just a shop-girl, for in the year following their defeat of the Nestene Consciousness, she would save not just the wounded Time Lord but the entire universe as well.

He looked around and soon found what he came here for. The Bad Wolf, this time in form of the nineteen-year-old Rose, watched him from behind a pillar, her eyes glowing golden in the dark. The smirk, which the Doctor had begun to hate, was present on her face.

"My, my... what a surprise! You should have called and I would have chosen a more pleasant memory in which to meet. Not that your first meeting is unpleasant but this place is rather…" She raised one hand and motioned around her. "…dull."

When the Doctor stayed silent and continued to glare at her, the Bad Wolf sighed. "Straight to business as always, I see. How may I help you?"

"You know what I want you to do and we both know you won't accept my plea," the Doctor stated flatly.

"And that means...?" the Bad Wolf asked, cocking one eyebrow.

The Doctor looked over to the right side of him, the place were he had first taken Rose's hand, the place where he had first felt like never wanting to let go of it again.

He looked back at the Bad Wolf, hardened resolve in his eyes, and took a deep breath.

"I'm here to make a deal."

~*~

"In the library... you didn't happen to find a way of saving the planet, did you?" Jack leaned against the doorway, his question aimed at the Doctor, who was sitting in the kitchen, brooding over a cup of tea.

"Yes and no," he answered Jack, who took the chair in front of him. "I looked into both of our problems but couldn't find out anything new about Oscuria."

"But you have found a way of saving Rose?"

"We don't have to worry about the Vortex for some time," the Doctor answered, staring at his cup of steaming tea.

"That's great!" Jack said with relief in his voice. "What did you do?"

The Doctor continued to stare into the depths of his cup, remaining silent instead of answering. Jack's smile vanished and he suddenly became nervous. "Doctor... what did you do?"

The Time Lord looked up at him, his age for the very first time visible within his eyes.

"Don't ask, Jack. Don't. Just... don't."

The Time Agent didn't ask again... until it was too late.

~*~

"It looks so different," Rose said after stepping out of the TARDIS and into a time approximately

three hundred years before their first visit to Oscuria.

"Yep! It developed rather fast in the fifty years from this point..." the Doctor stated, motioning towards the little wood and clay huts. Only a few buildings had been built with stone and the streets consisted of mud and pebbles. People rode on big elephant-like creatures and transported their goods on small wagons.. All in all, it looked exactly how Rose always imagined medieaval Europe... well, apart from the alien residents and the strange creatures, of course.

"So, that 'Nox' guy... how are we supposed to find him?" she asked, eyeing the mass of people walking up and down the street. Instead of the bright multiracial look of its future, the planet seemed to now be home to only a single humanoid race, confirming Rose's suspicion that the priestess's race had been the original one.

"_Weeell_, he is supposed to predict our arrival in a pub and..." The Doctor looked at the houses along the street. "I can see only one in this place." Jack and Rose followed his pointing finger with their eyes and spotted an old dirty looking building at the end of the road.

"If the pub smells exactly like it looks, I'm not sure I want to go in there..." Rose said, scrunching up her nose. She still remembered her trip to a pub in 1873, when the Doctor still had that impressive pair of ears, and swore since then that her sense of smell had never been the same..

"Oh, come oooon!" the Doctor cheered , swinging their joined hands back and forth widely. "You want to come along! You know it!"

Rose pursed her lips and looked to the side, reminding her two companions of a pouting child.

"Just let her stay outside, Doctor. She does have nice company out here..." Jack grinned and nodded towards two drunk and definitely leering old men.

The Doctor's territorial instincts towards Rose took over as he looked like he like he was considering violence towards anyone who had inappropriate thoughts about his Rose. His expression became suddenly lighter as he took a closer look at the men. "Oh, it's not Rose they're checking out, Jack," he said, laughing and tugging the suddenly disgusted and shocked Time Agent along, together with a now sniggering Rose. "You two are coming with me. All for one and one for all!"

"So, we're the three Musketeers now? Well, better than those two comic figures you two are always going on about..."

Jack flinched at the two scandalised faces now looking at him. "Shiver and Shake are brilliant!" they said in unison, causing him to roll his eyes.

"Whatever."

They stayed silent for a while until Rose asked the Doctor, "Don't you find it strange?"

"What?"

"Two prophecies about us. Out of two different times from two different people. It's almost like someone is trying to point us in a certain direction..."

The Doctor rubbed his chin. "I'm sure it's just coincidence."

Rose raised her eyebrows. "Like Bad Wolf was just coincidence?"

If she noticed the look shared by Jack and the Doctor, she did a good job of hiding it.

~*~

The pub was exactly like Rose imagined: dirty, filthy, stinking and, above all, hazy with smoke. Every face in the room turned to them as they opened the door, multiple eyes squinting as rays of sunshine penetrated the smoky air for just a short moment.

The pub patrons watched the three strangers, anticipating a fight to break out or some sort of action. When it became obvious that none of the three were going to do anything exciting, everyone turned their attentions back to the glasses in their hands.

"Wow... do you feel as loved as I do?" Jack asked, eyeing the grumpy drunkards.

"Be glad they don't act differently," the Doctor said, still watching the room carefully. "They have most likely never seen an 'alien' before... Probably think we are wearing costumes or something."

The Doctor leaned against the high bar and signalled to the bartender. Rose once again asked herself how he always managed to fit in, no matter the time and place. He looked like a midget between the tall, brawny and multicoloured men but nevertheless seemed to be strangely at home.

"Excuse me, my friend! We are searching for Mr. Nox... I have heard he is supposed to be here today?" the Doctor asked with a friendly smile, despite the bartender having teeth like a shark and showing all of them to him right now.

"The ol' Zanabadorian isn' good for nothin'," the bartender said in a thick accent and laughed. "Drinkin' an' babblin' the whole day, the ol' chap is."

"Oh, that's quite alright. We are here because of the babbling!" the Doctor returned cheerfully. "So, he is here then?"

The barman raised his eyebrows but pointed at a shady corner in the back of the pub. "There he is. Goo' luck in wakin' him up!"

The three walked over to the dark corner and found an old man sprawled across a table, snoring loudly with his head pillowed on his arm in front of him

"Wow! He is even louder than you are, Rose!" The Doctor's comment was rewarded with a slap on the back of his head by his lover. "Ouch! Touchy, aren't we?"

"Don't start," Jack threw in when Rose opened her mouth to return something undeniably unfriendly. Shaking the sleeping man violently, he shouted his name a few times to wake him up. "Mr Nox! We have to talk to you. Mr-

"Alright, already!" the man grunted and lifted his head off the table. The strong smell of alcohol made all three of them scrunch their noses in disgust. "Can't an old man get some peace and quiet now and then?"

"Peace and quiet?" Rose repeated loudly with raised eyebrows, trying to be heard over the cacophony of chatting and singing from the drunken patrons.

"You should spend two minutes with my wife, honey. _This _is heaven compared to that!" Nox explained, his mouth full of rotten teeth showing as he answered.

"Right..." the Doctor started and cleared his throat. "Do you mind if we ask you a few questions? It might be very important for the future of your planet."

Nox laughed. "And you are coming to me?! What can I possible help you with? And for the planet's future no less..." He snorted and tried to take another gulp out of his glass, only to find it empty. "Know what? One drink and I'm telling you everything you want to know."

"Brilliant!" the Doctor answered and turned to Jack. "Could you...?"

The Time Agent smiled broadly at him. "Of course!" he answered and vanished inside the crowd. Two minutes later, he returned with another glass of alcohol. Nox accepted it greedily and downed it in one gulp.

"Ah! Oscurian beer... just how I like it!" he expressed with a dreamy look on his face. "So, what do you want to know?"

"The thing is... Well, this might sound strange but... did you prophesy the arrival of people like us on this planet? In a couple of hundred years?" the Doctor asked, knowing full well how strange it had to sound to the old man.

And really, the man looked quite taken aback by his question. "Blimey, how do you know? You don't look like one of _them_..."

"I... what?"

"I didn't prophecy anything yet, but... two men, at least I think they were men, asked me to make a prophecy. Gave me quite a lot of money, too, they did. Meant they have heard about my grandmother, a well-known seer. Truth be told... I exchanged everything for drinks already..." Rose thought he looked ashamed for a moment, until she realised Nox was just sad that his glass was empty again.

"These men... What did they look like?" the Doctor asked anxiously, sitting on the very edge of his chair.

"Can't really say... They were clad fully in black leather. Didn't even speak... they just gave me a piece of paper that said what I have to do and the money. Of course, I didn't even think twice about accepting... _Oh!_ And they wore these strange hats... round, shiny and black. Looked pretty hard to me. Never saw anything like it..."

Rose furrowed her brow. "Black leather, round and hard hat...? If I didn't know better, I would think he's describing a biker! But what would a biker do he-"

"A biker, of course!" The Doctor and Jack interrupted her simultaneously. Facing each other, they exclaimed, "Slabs!"

"Slab... what?" Rose asked confusedly.

"Slabs!" they shouted again, this time to her. "Slaves. Often used as henchmen. Made completely out of leather," the Doctor explained. "They are quite expensive and don't exist _anywhere _near this time line." Then he turned back to Nox. "Anything else you can tell us?"

"I don't... wait! That thing!" He pointed at Jack's wristband. "They had something like that around their wrists."

The Doctor grabbed the old man's arms and stared into his eyes. "Are you sure?! Are you _absolutely_ sure?" When the man nodded bewilderedly the Doctor let go of him. "Alright. Thank you for your time." With that, he left Nox alone, Rose and Jack following closely behind.

Rose took hold of his arm to stop him. "Doctor?" she asked but he was too busy thinking and didn't hear her.

"Two prophecies... both about us. Someone paying someone else to make one of the prophecies. A devastated planet. An unknown company supporting a rebellion... How does all of that fit together... _how_?" he muttered, running his free hand through his hair. "Time travelling Slabs... _Time travelling Slabs! _This is not good... not good at all."

"Doctor..."

"_What?!_" the Doctor shouted, startling her. When he realised who spoke to him, his face softened. "I'm sorry. It's just... I have a very bad feeling about all of this..."

Jack put a hand on the Time Lord's shoulder. "Don't worry, Doc. There is nothing the three of us can't do! Musketeers, right?"

Rose nodded, hugged his arm and laid her head on his other shoulder. "Jack is right, you know? Invincible, we are."

"If only, Rose... if only..." he mumbled, drawing Rose inside his arms and ignoring the feeling of time running out...


	8. Chapter 8

Hey, guys! I'm sorry about the very long wait. Real life had been pretty busy lately and I haven't had much time to write. My beta reader has been busy at work as well so our hobby had to wait a while ;). Well, hopefully back on track again... Two to three chapters left I think so I'm going to do my best to finish it quickly. I have also decided to write the promised one-shots after the story is finished in case I'm going through a busy period again. So, enjoy the new chapter and Happy Easter to you all! :)

~*~

"Is he still brooding over those gigantic books?" Jack asked when he came into the kitchen.

Rose, steaming mug in hands and knees drawn to her chest, sat on a chair at the table and looked up at his question.

"Yeah. He was mumbling something about an idea which was 'impossible, just impossible' and stalked off. Don't think we are going to see him for the next eight, nine hours... Being unable to figure something out for such a long time seems to drive him nuts," she said. She took a sip from her tea and hissed when she burned her tongue.

"Welcome to our world," Jack said grinning. "Maybe it's not bad for him to experience a little cluelessness."

Rose snorted at that. "Yeah, right! I visited him in the library a few minutes ago and he didn't even realise I was there! I could have danced a naked fertility dance, and he wouldn't have even noticed!"

"Well, you can do it in front of me and I promise I'll notice you!" Jack said, leering at her.

Rose laughed and swatted his arm. "Down, boy. You don't want the Oncoming Storm blowing you out an airlock," she joked and stood up to make a cup of tea for Jack.

"True... Otherwise I would have swept you off your feet a very long time ago," he returned, waggling his eyebrows.

Rose shook her head while putting on the kettle. "You are so full of it! Your ego could feed a whole self-help group with inferiority complexes!" she laughed and reached up to get a bag of Jack's favourite tea.

Feigning a hurt look, Jack placed both hands over his heart. "That hurts!" he exclaimed, his face slowly breaking into a big grin. "It could feed at least ten groups!"

Rose rolled her eyes. Figures that the Doctor would find the one companion who could compete with his ego. "Alright, Mr Fantastic! How about using the so impressive muscles of yours in your more than perfectly shaped arm to open a glass of marmalade for me?" she asked, waving the object in question in front of his face.

All charming smile and bedroom eyes, Jack took it out of her hand, turned his body so she would get a good look at his biceps (she rolled her eyes again) and tried nonchalantly to open the glass... and failed. Rose giggled hysterically and grabbed one of the chairs for support when he tried to open it with all his might, the colour of his face changing to beet red in mere seconds.

"Not nice to make fun of a weak man, Rose," a voice mentioned from the doorway.

Rose grinned at the entering Doctor, tongue between teeth and cheeks flushed from her laughter. "It's funny, though," she retorted before walking over to her lover and hugging him just for the sake of it. Smiling, the Time Lord returned the gesture and walked over to Jack after releasing her.

Without a word, he took the glass out of the Time Agent's hands and opened it in one swift motion. Jack gaped at the open glass of jam that had tortured him mere seconds ago. "How the hell did you do that?!" he asked, inspecting the glass as if to see a trick in the Doctor's feat of strength. "You aren't in any way stronger than I am! How did you...?"

Rose smirked and answered before the Doctor could do it. "Easy peasy. He eats at least five glasses of marmalade a week. Got practise on the planet Jama-... Jamenama-... what was its name?"

The Doctor sighed but answered immediately. "Jambadaladamdam. Really, Rose, you should remember easy names like that!"

"Easy my ass," Rose mumbled. She grabbed the glass out of his hand, and, dipping in a knife, spread the thick orange jelly on her bread. She groaned when each man held out a slice of bread to her but she spread marmalade for the two anyway.

Sitting down at the kitchen table, the three of them ate in silence until Rose turned to the Doctor. "Did you find anything? We didn't expect you back for the next couple of hours..."

Sighing, the Doctor laid his piece of bread back on his plate. "Yeah... more or less. It doesn't really prove anything... only that my theory is indeed possible."

"And that theory is...?" Jack asked, arching one eyebrow.

The Doctor crossed his arms and looked at both his companions. Together, they had withstood countless seemingly hopeless situations, but _this..._ this was big. Maybe too big for him and certainly too big for his human friends. In the past, the Time Lords would have been able to do something... but now he was on his own. Not completely, of course. No, Rose and Jack were a great help to him. More than he ever suspected humans to be, but... there were things only his race could help him with. Only they could research unknown grounds like this... but he was alone. The only one to find a way to save not only this but, if he was right, every universe in existence.

"Doctor?" At his name, he looked up into Rose's beautiful brown eyes, so full of hope and life it touched his very soul.

The Doctor took a deep breath and began to explain.

~*~

After hours of discussions, Jack lay on his bed, listening to the soft hum of the TARDIS and thinking about the Doctor's theory.

The way he spoke about their potential new enemy made Jack's blood run cold. He had never heard so much fear inside the Time Lord's voice... not even when they faced their certain deaths at the hands of the Daleks did he seem so frightened.

He began his explanation with a story Jack knew from his childhood, a tale about the genesis of the universe. His mother had told it like this:

_At first there were two beings, powerful and wise._

_The first had the power to create, to be and to exist._

_The second had the power of time, life and death._

_Both combined their powers to create a world full of life and death._

_The First One created space, ground and earth to walk upon and exist._

_The Second One created life, creatures and plants that aged and died._

_But after their little world, the very first planet in existence, bloomed to life, the First One was discontent._

_The Second One might be happy to watch the life on one planet, but for the First One it wasn't enough and so he created more and more planets and skies._

_The Second One, seeing what his friend had done without asking was enraged by such insolence. It was _his _power, after all, that brought life and death. _His _power had made their creation interesting and exciting!_

_But the First One just laughed and continued to create world after world until space seemed to be endlessly filled. What did he care about the Second's thoughts? It was _his _power after all that made life possible. _His _power that started their creation._

_Out of spite, the First One decided to enrage his friend even more. While the Second One slept, the First One stole his staff, the source of his power, and used it to create parallel worlds. From whatever decisions their creatures now made, another universe would be created._

_When the Second One awoke and saw what his friend had done, his fury knew no bounds. When he, too, went to sleep, the Second One stole his staff, the origin of his friend's power, and sealed it inside one of the countless planets in one of the million universes, never to be found again._

_What the Second One didn't know was that neither of them could survive long without their powers. And so after days and days of pleading for mercy, the First One vanished right in front of the Second One's eyes._

_At first, the Second One was glad to be alone. To be able to create life without the First One's bragging and interference, but soon he felt lonely and unhappy. _

_The creatures he created were sentient but could never understand a being like him. He was alone... all alone in the big universe they created._

_Feeling remorse for his actions, the Second One decided to grant his powers to the creatures he created, so they would be able to use part of his powers and travel in time. He became a creature of raw power, never to remember and to feel again._

Jack turned onto his side as he repeated the tale in his thoughts. The Doctor's theory was that although it hardly happened exactly as told, there was a sliver of truth inside of the tale.

Theoretically, the Second One's power was the Vortex which was now residing inside Rose's head. And the Second One was, if the Doctor was right, the power they would have to fight against.

For Jack, it seemed still unbelievable what the Time Lord had found out with so few hints. His theory was based on the vanished Reapers that should have fixed whatever the three of them did wrong in the past and the absence of the Doctor's 'warning sense,' as he liked to call it.

"_900 years of time and space aren't easily remembered, not even with a brain like mine,"_ Jack remembered him saying. "_Because of that Time Lords have a special sense warning them of possible paradoxes and the like. I usually feel it in my gut when history is about to change but this time... I didn't feel a thing. It's like someone or something is blocking my senses."_

In the Time Lord's mind, the only possible explanation was a very powerful entity that manipulated not just him but also Time itself. "_The part of the Vortex inside of Rose is only a very small part, but enough to cause the Vortex to be weakened by the missing energy, weakened enough to be manipulated and _that _can only be done by an equally powerful entity."_

"_So you mean it has to be that creature from the story?" _Rose had asked after the Doctor's explanation.

"_Well, I can't be sure, of course, but it's the only one I know of. My people spent centuries researching and found that the same story exists all over the universe with only slight variations. So, I reckon there has to be some truth behind it."_

Jack sighed when he thought about the following day. The Doctor wanted to go back to Oscuria and search for further clues. He suspected the planet to be the same one where the First One's 'staff' was buried. "_Of course, it won't be a real staff... there is no such thing as magic. At least not in the Harry Potter way. But I think the power source for which the priestess was searching could indeed be the source of the First One's power. The extreme destruction and missing sun are both indicators of an unnatural catastrophe."_

The Doctor had then continued to explain the origin of the tale on Gallifrey, how some Time Lords had been obsessed with the idea of discovering a power similar to the Vortex and finding easier ways of travelling through the Void which came, according to the Gallifreyan tale, in existence when the First One created parallel worlds. The sheer endless possibilities caused even a few Time Lords to go insane and so after centuries and centuries with few discoveries, further research was forbidden.

Jack knew how painful it was for the Doctor to speak about his people and was rather surprised how openly he had spoken about them. Apart from stopping now and then and closing his eyes in pain when a dear memory of friends and colleagues surfaced, he seemed to be able to talk more easily about them than before. Jack didn't know whether it was Rose holding the Doctor's hand or the trust the he had built up in his companions, but Jack was glad about the more open New New Doctor. Although he rather missed the big ears and nose, this regeneration of his had several personality quirks that Jack had grown to like.

Jack's thoughts were interrupted by a knock on his bedroom door.

"Jack? Are you... decent?" came the muffled voice of the Doctor through the door. The Time Agent smirked at the distressed tone of the Doctor. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to greet him in his birthday suit when the Time Lord visited him last time...

"Doc... a body like this is _never_ really decent," he answered, swinging his legs over the edge of his bed to sit up.

"Jaaaack." Noting the warning sound in the Doctor's voice, Jack sighed and moved over to the door.

"You know, half the time I _don't_ run naked around the TARDIS," he said after opening the door and looking in the Doctor's glaring face.

The Doctor raised one eyebrow and crossed his arms. "Your lack of clothes wasn't the problem last time... more the dream you obviously had before waking..." When instead of recognition, confusion grazed Jack's face, the Doctor sighed and evaded his eyes. "You know, you were... excited... excited about.... you know..."

"What? I... " Jack started when it finally dawned on him. "Oh... _Oh_, right! Morning wood! And where is the problem?" he asked grinning, oblivious to the Doctor's discomfort.

Sighing again, the Time Lord rubbed the back of his neck. "Never mind. Rose wants to visit her mum before we go back to Oscuria. Wanna come?" He shot Jack a hopeful look, knowing his life or regeneration might depend on his answer. "Please! Rose wants to tell her about our relationship and I'm dead meat when she finds out I'm shagging her daughter!"

The Doctor pleading for help... Jack never thought it would come to this. "And you think I can help with that?"

"You could flirt with her... put her in a good mood, charm her into not using my manly Time Lord parts for her meat and potato pie... please!"

When the Doctor looked at him with his big brown eyes and untidy hair, Jack realised he never really had a choice.

~*~

"Where the bloody hell is my daughter, you sorry git of an an alien?!"

"Scream louder, Jackie... I think Nepal didn't quite hear you."

"Oh, don't get smart with me, you-"

Jack flinched at the unfriendly words Jackie Tyler called the Doctor and saw the necessity to step in when she threatened him with the dripping wet frying pan in her hand.

"Good afternoon, Miss Tyler!" he said, hastily pressing the Doctor to the side. "But... this must be a mistake... Rose said her mum lives here but surely a woman as young as you can't be her mother." Jack took her free hand in his and kissed it, never leaving her eyes. "I'm Jack Harkness... _Captain_ Jack Harkness."

To the Doctor's wonder (and slight disgust), Jackie blushed and giggled like a little girl.

"Oh, I really am her mother. I know it's unbelievable... People are always mistaking me for her sister."

The Doctor snorted at her words but kept his mouth shut after a painful kick from Jack.

"An easy mistake to make. I can really see where Rose gets her beauty."

"Not her, that's sure," the Doctor muttered under his breath, gaining him yet another kick.

Jackie glared momentarily at the Time Lord before turning her gaze back to Jack. "as much as I enjoy _your_ company," She emphasized the word 'your' so the Doctor felt _not_ included. "But, where is Rose?"

"Oh, she wanted to make a quick trip to Tesco. Get a few supplies..."

"Oh, alright. Please come in." Jackie led Jack into the flat. When the Doctor made to follow his friend, she shut the door right into his face.

The Time Lord angrily rubbed his throbbing nose and kicked the door. Jack needed nearly ten minutes to convince her of letting him in.

When Rose arrived, the Doctor opened the door and pulled her into a bear hug. Recognising it as a 'near-death-experience hug' instead of a 'welcome-back one', she patted his back and said, "That bad, huh?"

The Doctor pulled back to stare into her face with a grim expression on his own. "You have no idea..."

He took her hand and pulled her into the living room. The sight greeting her was one Rose didn't desire to see ever again. Her mother sat next to Jack and snuggled as close to him as she could get. They chatted vividly and only Jack's close friends were able to notice the slight discomfort behind his big grin. Apparently he didn't like the proximity to Jackie any more than Rose did.

"Mum! Stop swooning all over Jack! He is a guest," Rose came to his aid and the Time Agent shot her a grateful look when Jackie stood up to make some tea.

When the Doctor sat next to her, Rose took his hand and said, "We should tell her now... I don't like to keep secrets from my mother."

"Can't you at least wait after the tea is ready? I don't think she will give me any after she makes me regenerate..." the Doctor muttered gravely, staring at a point on the wall.

Rose swatted his arm. "Don't be silly. She isn't that bad. Mickey still lives, you know."

The Doctor growled. Reminding him of her ex-boyfriend was apparently _not_ a good idea. "Come on! Jack and I are here, aren't we? We are going to protect you!" she said this with such resolution that the Doctor almost believed her. _Almost._

"You have to face it, Rose. We can't tell her! Your mother is-"

"Her mother is what?!" an angry voice thundered and the Doctor had to fight the embarrassing urge to jump behind the couch and hide.

Jackie Tyler carried a tray with four cups of tea into the living room, all the while glaring at him like he was responsible for all things bad in the world... which he probably was in her eyes.

When he didn't tell her what exactly she was, Jackie Tyler put the tray on the table and sat down opposite the Doctor, much to his dismay.

Jackie squinted her eyes when instead of retorting a snappy comment, the Doctor avoided her gaze. "And _what _do you want to tell me?" The alien squirmed in his seat and Jackie began to get nervous. Looking over at Rose, she took her hand and nearly whispered, "Rose, please tell me you aren't pregnant by him!"

The reactions to this sentence would have been funny for an outsider. The Doctor went rigid, Rose's eyebrows shot up and Jack spit out his tea all over the table.

"How come of all possible things, you are asking that?!" Rose asked incredulously.

Jackie sighed and took a sip from her tea. "Don't act like it's so unbelievable... It's bad enough that an alien is shagging my daughter in a small blue box..." The three of them stared at her and couldn't believe their ears. "What?" Jackie asked, noticing the stares.

"H-How did you know?" Rose asked confused while the Doctor held her hand in a death grip. "Don't think I didn't notice it right away..." Jackie waved with her left hand and took another sip from her tea. "You two were all over each other after that vacation you made. Doesn't take a genius to figure it out."

"And you are... okay with it?" By now, Rose couldn't feel her fingertips.

Her mother snorted and glared momentarily at the Time Lord who swallowed hard in response. "As long as he doesn't drag you off to a far away planet to marry you without me... I'm not gonna get to say a thing in this matter anyway, am I? You two do what you want... at least he doesn't take drugs or something..." She eyed the Doctor like a hawk and he was already feeling her sharp claws inside his flesh. "You don't, do you?"

He shook his head violently, praying she would believe him and his gob wouldn't run away with him. That one time in Woodstock after all...

Jackie made a deep sound that sounded a lot like a growl but nodded. "Alright. Just treat her like the lady she is! I wouldn't entrust my daughter to just anyone, you know."

That one sentence took a load off his mind. He let go of Rose's abused hand and grinned over at Jack who returned his smile happily. That went a lot better than they expected...

~*~

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	9. Chapter 9

Hands wandering gently over her body, leaving a path of fire on its wake.. A tongue, so deliciously cold on her skin, exploring her hot form... trying to taste every inch of her. A voice promising sweet things into her ear, answering every whimper and moan with one of its own...

Rose often asked herself what kind of love making she loved most with the Doctor. The 'we-aren't-dead'-one, celebrating their beating hearts on whatever surface they could find, the desperate kind of sex after certain death situations where the Doctor made her his wherever she stood or... _this one. _The gentle, promising kind... the only way he made her feel undoubtedly loved and treasured by him. When Rose's body trembled for the fifth time that night, her question had been answered.

~*~

"Long night, yeah?" Jack's merry voice greeted her when she appeared in the kitchen next day.

Not bothering to even glare, Rose straightened the long shirt, she had borrowed from her lover, and walked over to empty Jack's coffee in one big gulp.

The grin vanished immediately from his face. "Oi! That's mine!"

"Was," Rose simply said and made to get another cup. Stumbling slightly, she filled water into the kettle and put it on.

"Rose?"

No reaction.

"Ehm... Rosie? Hun?"

Yawning, she swayed over to the fridge, moving like a zombie, to get some milk when she saw her reflection on its shining surface. Rose nearly winced at the dark circles and heavy eyes blinking back at her. Apparently, hours and hours of love making doesn't do much good to a woman's complexion... especially when her lover decided to choose that very night to get his three hours worth of sleep and keeps her awake with his snoring.

No, loud breathing, of course... Because Time Lords doesn't snore. Not ever, like the one in her bed always tried to make her believe. Grunting, she got the milk, placed it none too gently on the table and sank down on the chair opposite of Jack, her head falling right next to the carton.

The Time Agent grinned at his exhausted friend. He got used to her being worse to wear in the morning, giving the fact that her boyfriend was a never stopping, barely sleep needing and insatiable alien, but her state right now surprised even him. It seemed like the Doctor was more than happy of being alive (with his old face and body) and once again celebrated this fact with Rose in the night. Without consideration for inferior human physiology of course.

Still grinning, Jack tapped Rose's head with his index finger. Rose groaned in response but neither moved nor gave another sign of her acknowledging his presence. Shaking his head in disbelief but with a small, fond smile on his face, Jack went over to the boiling kettle.

~*~

The Doctor smiled in contentment. He nearly purred at the warmth spreading through his body and stretched like a cat. He had a nice dream that night... he dreamed of defeating a terrible monster and rescuing the pink and yellow princess who thanked him for it. And quite thoroughly, too.

The Time Lord grinned when he realised the dream was more like a memory and his princess lay just inches away from his fingertips. Admittedly, the monster didn't put up that much of a fight... but what could you expect from an old dragon? Thinking back to the previous night, he pictured Rose wriggling beneath him, face twisted with pleasure and bliss when he drove her to completion again and again and again. The Doctor saw himself using his tongue, lips and hands to explore her body and remembered her pleads, screams and encouragements. Growing hard again at the memory, he grinned and reached over to grasp for his lover but found... nothing. Feeling suddenly wide awake, he groaned when his hand touched nothing more than cold mattress and tangled sheets. So much for sex in the morning... he must have snore-... breathed! Breathed loudly again.

Cursing his sometimes not _that _superior physiology, the Doctor made his way to the bathroom for a very cold shower...

~*~

Jack tried to restrain from laughing. He _really_ did, but... it was just too funny. Watching the Doctor rubbing his throbbing cheek, he burst out laughing, earning him glare from his friend. Seconds ago, the Time Lord cornered Rose in the hallway, hands wandering up and down her body only to be rewarded by her stepping on his feet and a rather painful sounding slap. Calling the Doctor an insatiable, rabbit related idiot, she went passed him to step first into the console room.

"It's your own fault, you know?" Jack said to him, grinning from ear to ear.

The Doctor grumbled something incoherent and went after Rose.

"Alright!" he exclaimed with new found enthusiasm once he reached the console. "Any last words before I press _this_ lever," He motioned to the one just in front of him. "and we enter another amazing and dangerous adventure?"

"Yeah, stop being so bloody happy! It's annoying," Rose growled.

The Doctor swallowed hard when for the first time that morning, he took a closer look at her. Seemed like she got even less sleep than he expected and that meant... ah, yes! There was that vein on her forehead popping out.

Swallowing again, he did the one thing that assured his survival in a situation like this: retreat.

"Yes, ma'am!" the Doctor replied, fighting the strange alien urge to salute.

Avoiding her eyes, he pushed the lever down.

~*~

Oscuria still looked as devastated as it did on their last visit. Which was no surprise, since they landed mere minutes after their past versions vanished. _Alright, hours... _the Doctor corrected himself after taking another look at the screen. _Well, _s_ame difference._

"The time has come!" he suddenly exclaimed, clapping his hands together in an excited motion. "Now, we are going to discover what truth lies in legend! What enemy is breathing down our necks! What dangers are awaiting us in-" The Time Lord stopped his oral fluency when he turned around to look at his companions and found... no one of course.

A giggle made him turn to look at the doorway to the corridor. Rose looked at him with a glint of mirth inside her eyes. She was already dressed in one of his 'extraordinary', protective, tardis-blue spacesuits. "Jack figured you would be talking for a while so he went to get two other suits," Rose said cheekily, catching his questioning glance.

The Doctor smirked at her. "It suits you," he said, eyes wandering up and down her body. "Not everyone can pull off this blue marshmallow-look, you know?"

Laughing, the London girl went over to her lover, put her arms around his neck and gave him a quick peck on the mouth. "I'm sorry about before... You know, I'm a bit touchy when it comes to my beauty sleep..."

The Doctor put his arms around her waist (as much as the suit allowed at least) and pressed her body to his. "I know. And I'm sorry about the," He sighed but lay his chin onto her shoulder and continued. "I'm sorry about the snoring."

Pulling back, Rose looked surprised into his face. "You admitted it!" she exclaimed, her voice full of wonder.

"I admitted it," he repeated, looking straight into her eyes. "And I'm going to do something about it. I love sleeping with you, Rose Tyler."

When Rose's eyebrows raised at his turn of phrase, he added, "Sleeping _beside_ you! I love sleeping beside you, not with you!" A few seconds in silence passed before she smirked and he continued, "No, wait! That came out wrong. I love sleeping beside you _and_ with you, of course! You know, I do. Always trying to prove that, me. With the physical attention I give you and-" Her finger on his lips stopped his rambling.

"Doctor, you talk too much," Rose mentioned and stood up on her heels.

"Not good, that. You have to stop me somehow..." the Doctor said, his voice trailing off at the end and his face dipping down.

When their lips were inches apart from touching, a certain Captain stepped into the room, two heavy space suit in hands. "Oi, two damn minutes and you two are at it again! Don't make me get a bucket of cold water!" Jack said, waving his finger in a disapproving gesture despite his suggestive smile. "You know my rules: No hanky panky right before an adventure unless I'm allowed to join in."

The Doctor closed his eyes briefly in a vain attempt of containing his annoyance. "And since when," he began, glaring at his smirking friend. "are you making up rules on_ my_ ship, _Captain_?" He expressed the last word with obvious spite.

"Since I," Jack said, letting the suits drop to the floor and reaching behind him to the pockets of his trousers. "found _these_ on a market in Opolokokolo III." He held up glasses (at least they looked faintly like glasses to Rose) that were obviously high technology, heavy and_ very _alien. Wires looked out on various parts of it, the 'glass' consisted of a shining black/green surface and two long antennas looked out on either side of its frame. A faint beeping sound could be heard from within it.

The Doctor let go of Rose in an instant. "Are that... Opolokokian dimensional energy detection glasses?" he asked with wonder in his voice, hands reaching out as if to grab and run away with them. "With Permian core and Ardenian circuits?"

"Even better," Jack replied, grinning. "Permian core and _Scalporian_ circuits!"

The breath hitched in the Doctor's throat. "Brilliant!" he exclaimed, taking the glasses from Jack to expect them with his own.

Rose, still standing on the same spot where the Doctor left her, looked perplexed at the two now tech-talking men, feeling oddly left out.

"Great," she muttered. "Just ignore me! Some stupid glasses with Perser whatever and Scalpathingies are _so_ much better than a good snog, after all!" Pursing her lips, Rose crossed her arms and let herself fall on the jump seat.

The Doctor looked up for a moment when he heard her outburst and shot her a look similar to a child who was asked to choose between his favourite candy and a new toy. "You _know_ how much I love snogging you, but these are going to help us a great deal to find out if my theory is right! They could save us_ hours _of endless wandering!"

That peeked Rose's interest. The suit began to feel uncomfortable already and she didn't favour the thought of wearing it while walking on a dead planet any more than necessary. "Well, what are you waiting for? Get into those suits and off we go!"

Jack smirked at her. "Rose Tyler, you are the first woman who ever asked me to get _into_ a suit!"

The Doctor just sighed and shook his head in disbelief.

~*~

Rose knitted her brows together, face twisted in deep concentration when she tried to get together what the Doctor just explained to her. Neither the heat nor the undulating path through long destroyed streets and barely preserved ruins made it any easier for her.

"So let me get this straight," she started after climbing over a rather big mound of dust and stones. "these... _glasses_... can show you where a big source of energy on this planet is?"

The Doctor turned his head to her. He looked rather funny with the beeping glasses spread over the suit's helmet. "_Weeeell_... you _could _say it like that. It's much more complicated than that, though. What makes the Opolokokian dimensional energy detection glasses special is indeed the ability to not only find energy sources but also to detect where a certain level of energy _had_ _been_. Even if there is nothing left of it, they can show you the place with a precision of five years, give or take."

"But... how can that be? If nothing, absolutely nothing is left of it, what... what is it measuring?" Rose asked, frowning. "It _is_ measuring something, right?"

"Yep," the Doctor said, popping the 'p'. "And that's the absolutely brilliant thing about them! They are sending signals _back in time_!" Grinning gleefully at her, he turned his head to the right when another 'beep' distracted him.

"But... _how_? I thought only Time Lords and Time Agents could travel in time? It's not a common hobby to hob through history in the future, is it?" Rose asked, going after the Doctor who (:-P), in turn, seemed to follow the beeping sound.

When he gave no sign of hearing her but instead mumbled some numbers with occasional 'No, that can't be right...'s and 'Oh, yes! Of course!'s, Jack jumped in to answer her question. "Nah, that would be way to dangerous. Imagine people changing history to their liking! No, there are strict laws for that sort of thing, but rules never kept people from doing what they want... at least not those with money."

"But the glasses... you bought them, yeah?" Rose asked, now watching the Doctor walking in circles until he looked up from the ground and realised what he had been doing. Grunting, the Time Lord twisted a few knobs on the glasses and turned around to walk back to the direction they originally came from.

Jack frowned but turned to follow him together with Rose. "Yeah, I bought them... on the black market, though," he answered, a half embarrassed half shy grin on his face. "They are illegal but I couldn't pass down an opportunity like that! They aren't that easy to use, though. That's why I didn't tell the Doctor about them before..."

Rose didn't need to ask about his reasons. Despite being best friends, the Doctor and Jack always loved to compete against each other. In their early days, before the Doctor changed his face and body, they often fought for her attention, brought her to planets which they both knew she would love and asked her afterwards which of them she liked better. Now that the Doctor had obviously won that kind of competition, they changed the category to technical knowledge and it seldom happened that Jack surprised the Doctor with his human brain. He obviously wanted to find out how the glasses worked so he would later be able to show off with his knowledge.

When the Doctor changed direction for a fourth time in total, Rose turned to him and shouted, "Oi! Don't tell me you _still _don't know how they work! What happened to that so impressive Time Lord brain of yours?"

The Doctor huffed. "These are really complicated and you are _not _helping!" he said frustrated, causing Rose to grin.

Tongue between teeth, she bumped Jack's shoulder with her own who returned her grin.

~*~

"Hah! That's it! _Oooh_, I'm a genius!" the Doctor exclaimed thirty minutes later when the glasses began to beep and squeak loudly, leading him to a certain direction.

Rose and Jack sighed simultaneously in relief. The Time Lord began to get more and more restless with every additional unsuccessful attempt of getting the piece of high technology on his head to work and they began to fear he would throw it on the ground and begin to pout like a small child who didn't get what it wanted.

Now he began to search the ground with his eyes, stopping every now and then either to listen to the beeping sound or to read the pieces of information the glasses projected right in front of him.

"Uuuh! Oh! Oh, oh... _oh_! These are brilliant! 14586,865 west, 478666 east... No, no, no, no, no! Not east, north... or is it... HAH!" Rose and Jack jumped at his outcry. "That's it! _Come on!_" And with that he suddenly dashed to the right.

Both humans gave it their all to follow him. Stumbling over rocks and rubble, running over relics of bygone days, they hunted after the beeping noise and the Doctor's form.

When he suddenly stopped after what felt like hours, both arms outstretched to each side, Rose and Jack nearly crashed into him. They didn't have to ask why he stopped because they were able to see it right in front of their eyes.

A gigantic cliff, going on and on to east and west, split the ground in half.

Rose leaned slightly over the Doctor's arm. "What now? I can't even see the bottom... Are we going back to the TARDIS to cross it?"

"We don't have to," the Doctor answered, pressing two buttons on the energy detector. The glasses' colour changed to red. He pressed another one and the gadget projected a diagram over the cliff.

Jack's eyes widened. "Is that...?"

"Yep," the Doctor said, popping the 'p'. "We are here."

Rose stared into the darkness under them. "You mean... _this_ is what we were searching for? That staff, energy source... or whatever it is, was right here?"

"Yes. Approximately fifty years ago, an energy source exploded 500 feet under the ground. Based on the readings, the source had the power of two hundred atomic bombs." Despite Rose's shocked face, he continued without stopping. "Which is interesting... _very_ interesting. Oscuria is in size and structure very similar to Earth... There should be even more damage than this."

"But isn't that exactly what we have been searching for?" Jack mentioned, gaining the Doctor's attention. "An unnatural catastrophe with even more unnatural consequences?"

The Time Lord grinned at him. "Humans, always stating the obvious. Brilliant! Yep, you are absolutely right. As was my theory apparently, because _this_-" He picked up a small stone and threw it into the cliff. As soon as it vanished into the dark, a tremor, much like a shock wave coursed through their bodies and the air around them rippled like water. "-is anything than normal."

"What. The. Hell?!" Rose exclaimed when voices and noises began to sound all around them.

"Dimensional energy," Jack breathed. "Once touched it begins to open windows to other universes. Like the rift in Cardiff, but... much more powerful and concentrated here. I have _never_ seen anything like this in my life," he said when transparent people and buildings appeared over the cliff.

The Doctor took off the glasses and said, "Because it shouldn't be like this. It can't be, really. It's impossible! _Weeell_... improbable. And far too dangerous. Another explosion and a door to the Void could open up."

"And that would be bad?" Rose asked.

"Bad is an understatement," the Doctor answered grimly. "Some idiots would try to use it to their convenience, no doubt. Either using the energy or trying to get to other universes and then BAM! The end of the World. All worlds, really."

Jack stared at or rather _through _the human woman who picked up her crying child to cradle it in her arms. "If only my mum could see this now... She always loved that tale so much... Kept talking and talking about other universes where people just like us walked around. Looking the same but otherwise are completely different..."

The Doctor and Rose looked at each other. Jack never talked about his family and when Rose once asked, he began to mumble an excuse and left the room. "Jack... your parents, are they..." Before she could finish her question, he turned to the Doctor.

"Right! What do we do now? Going back in time to see what exactly happened?"

The Time Lord glanced at Rose who in turn nodded her approval before answering. "I'm not sure if that's going to do us any good... We don't have the exact date when it happened and even if we get the right day by default it would be too dangerous. The dimensional energy is strong enough to even turn the TARDIS into shreds."

Jack nodded. "Back to detective work then. What leads do we have left?"

"Only the Slabs, I think. There shouldn't be too many people who can afford them _and _are able toget their hands on Vortex manipulators," the Doctor answered, looking at the vanishing woman and child, buildings and cars. "It's still going to be lots of work to find out who it is... or rather who is _possessed _by the energy."

"Wait... you think it's inside a body?" Rose asked with wide eyes. "Like the Vortex is in me?"

"Yes and no," the Time Lord said, looking at her. "You only got a small part inside of you. Whoever unlucky person happened to be at the wrong time in the wrong place is thoroughly possessed. This," He mentioned to the now calm cliff. "is only an echo of what had been lying here. There is hardly any energy left, just... imprints."

Rose grabbed his arm as she imagined how someone must feel with so much energy inside his body. Was it like back then when she had all of the Vortex energy inside her own? Was that someone burning and hurting like she did then?

"Doctor, that person, what... is going to happen to him or her? Is... is he dead?"

A painful look crossed his face. "I think... yes, I'm afraid. It's probably just an empty shell now... Considering the energy connected with his mind and developed its own consciousness, of course."

"And you think whoever is possessed now used the priestess and Rondo to get us to this point?" Rose asked.

"So it seems. Maybe even Rondo's anonymous sponsor was no one else than the very person we are looking for. Don't ask me why, though. With the prophecy and all it looks just like it is playing with us." Despite their seemingly desperate situation, he turned around to smile at his friends. "Anyway! We got to... Oh." His smile froze on his face when he looked behind them.

Rose and Jack followed his gaze and would have tumbled into the bottomless pit behind them if the Doctor hadn't stopped them.

There, a few steps away from them, stood a young man with completely black eyes. The energy detector in the Doctor's hands began to beep soundly when black tendrils of energy appeared around him, surrounding the man like a halo.

Jack swallowed audibly. "Suppose we don't have to search for the energy any more..."


	10. Chapter 10

"Stay behind me," the Doctor commanded as he stepped in front of his companions, never leaving the eyes of the man engulfed in darkness. "And don't argue with me, Rose," he added before she could even open her mouth. "One part of the tale turned out to be true, wouldn't surprise me if the other did as well... which means that the Vortex inside of you is his target."

Jack pushed aside the Doctor's outstretched arm to stand beside him. Raising his eyebrows at his determined looking friend, the Time Lord said nothing and instead turned his attention to the man in front of him.

"Hello! I'm the Doctor. And who or what are you, if I may ask? Not the nicest of places to take a walk on this side of the universe... " he said in the cheerful voice he always used to communicate with his enemies, yet his eyes betrayed the dark storm underneath the smiling façade.

The figure smirked, emitting black sparks which gathered all around it. "You haven't figured it out yet? I'm shocked, Doctor."

"_Oh_, I've got an idea alright... but I would like to hear it from you. Bit of a habit, you know. Talking about this and that. Getting ancient evil entities to tell me all about their plans and weaknesses... Hard to get rid of, really."

The being's eyes flashed, as did its teeth when it spoke. "Such insolence... You do your reputation justice, Doctor. When did you get such a sharp tongue? Before or after you destroyed your own race?"

Jack stepped forward, anger twisting his features, but the Doctor stopped him with a pointed look.

"You are surprisingly well informed of what happened while you slept," the Doctor said. "Tell me, where did you get that information from?"

The creature laughed evilly, sending shivers down the spines of the trio. "Oh, a bit of time travel, some torture and a lot of money tend to loosen people's tongues. Of course, the boy was pretty helpful as well."

The Doctor looked sadly at the young man's empty face. "Who is he? Who _was_ the boy you destroyed?"

"Oh, just a very rich little one from the neighbouring planet. He inherited quite a lot of power and money after his parents died... Well, after I killed them, I mean."

Rose gasped at the creature's admission. The Doctor reached around to take her gloved hand in his and glared at the creature. "Why did you do all this? Just to get us here?"

"No, to get _her_ here," the possessed boy answered, pointing at Rose. "I used the priestess and that friend of yours to lure out what lies within her. The power that betrayed me aeons ago. I had heard about what happened at Satellite 5 from a few witnesses. Hundreds of Dalek ships turning to dust because of a golden light... A look at the security files and there was no doubt: my old... _friend _hadslipped into a human body. Just like I did. Well, not exactly, of course. You sucked most of it out of the little human again... but you did a rather poor job of it." The Doctor stood motionless as he listened, the only outward sign of his growing anger the clenching of his jaw muscles. The being sighed and continued. "My ability to sense the power allowed me more or less to follow you through time and space, but the Vortex energy grew slowly and my patience ran thin. That's why I built a trap on the planet that held me captive for so long. I activated some of my energy and lured your ship to Oscuria. Like a moth to a flame... of course, I concealed it well enough so you wouldn't notice a thing. What did you think? Lovely little planet to take a stroll?" The boy's face turned into a smirk. "Tough luck, eh?"

"You- You said you wanted to 'lure' the Vortex out of me..." Rose said, flinching slightly when the creature's disturbing black gaze focused on her. "W-What did you mean by that? Lure out... how?"

Laughing, the boy looked at the Doctor. "You didn't tell her, did you?" he asked him. "Oh, that's great! And so... _generous_ of you. Do you really want to know, my dear? Well, allow me to share this piece of information with you."

"Don't you dare! Don't you dare tell her!" the Doctor said angrily, fire blazing inside his eyes.

Rose looked confusedly between the two. "Tell me what?" she asked. "Doctor, what didn't you tell me?"

He wanted to say that everything was alright... that she shouldn't listen to a word the creature said but the evil being was faster than he. "That you killed the priestess, of course!"

~*~

Rose's blood ran cold. She had killed someone... _killed_. And not to save the world or for the greater good of the universe like when she had dealt with the Daleks... No, the priestess had no chance of escaping... she had not only killed, she had _murdered_.

A chill shot through her at the thought. Of course, it all made sense now. Her being unconscious, the blackout, Jack and the Doctor talking behind her back... Rose didn't understand why she hadn't realised it sooner. The Vortex had possessed her... there was no doubt of that now. It had possessed her and killed... killed using her body. That was what the creature in front of them meant by 'luring out.' The Doctor had explained it before, after all... The Bad Wolf learned from her and her experiences, from her emotions and feelings. Which made it all _her_ fault. It wasn't the Vortex that killed but her emotions, her anger at the priestess for her intention to use the children.

Rose stood silent and in shock as the tears spilled unchecked down her cheeks.

"Rose!" She heard the Doctor's voice faintly. It sounded so far away. "Rose, listen to me! It wasn't you! Do you hear me? Rose!"

She felt him grabbing her shoulders and saw his face swimming in front of her own but her vision was blurred and she found it hard to focus.

"Doctor..." she whispered, before her world was swallowed in darkness.

~*~

The Doctor caught her as Rose's knees began to buckle. Her eyes remained open yet seemed strangely empty... like all life had suddenly left her body. Horrified, the Doctor reached for her wrist to check her pulse, swearing when her suit prevented him from pressing flesh.

Rose's hand suddenly grasped his wrist. "Rose?" he asked, but when her whole body began to radiate heat, he knew it wasn't her.

"What the hell are you doing?!" the Doctor shouted at her. "We had a deal, remember? You were supposed to leave her alone!"

The Bad Wolf steadied itself to glare at him. "She didn't leave me much choice. Her whole mind was screaming... I had to do _something_. She is sleeping right now." Looking over at the dark boy, the Vortex's glare intensified. "That was your doing, wasn't it?"

"Oh, I've waited billions of years for this!" The boy smirked. "You don't remember, though, do you? How you imprisoned me here in this very place?"

"Spending aeons as a form comprised solely of energy tends to make one's memory a bit blurry. As does seeing past, present and future... what is and could be. So I would have to say 'no.' I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Well, then... let me remind you," he replied, grinning gleefully at his prey. "At the very beginning of the universe, when nothing, absolutely nothing existed, we were born. We had the power of time and space and decided to use it to build a planet. But that wasn't enough for me..."

"You are reciting a story," the Bad Wolf stated, raising an eyebrow at the boy. "I have already heard that one."

"Because it's true!" the dark boy shouted angrily. "We created the universe. _I_ did it. You wanted just one planet... nothing more. With our powers we are able to create such wonders... but _you _didn't have any ambition. I was bored out of my mind... That's why I did it. And _you _punished me for it with much more than I deserved."

The Bad Wolf laughed. "You really think it happened like that? I think the years in that hole have made you insane... I might not recall exactly your existence but I do know how time started. All you did after your release was kill and plan revenge... When I imprisoned you here, I'm sure I had a very good reason."

"You killed the priestess!"

"Yes, and Rose's breakdown showed me how very wrong that was."

The boy fumed. "All I wanted was a place to rule. A world created as _I _wanted it. Using my powers as I was destined to do! We aren't like them!" he shouted, pointing at the Doctor and Jack. "_We_ are _gods_! Ancient beings full of power and might! We can form worlds as we wish, create new specimens, destroy to create again. Why not use the power to our liking? It's not too late... We can still work together and change the universe. _All _the universes!"

Shaking its head, the Bad Wolf sighed. "Now I see. I wondered why you didn't do anything more than manipulate the people around you... You've lost nearly all of your power, haven't you? That's why you need my help."

Despite the darkness engulfing the boy, a faint blush appeared on his cheeks. "What do you know?!" he yelled. "I've had the power of _space _and yet you held me captive in such a confined place. My powers fell apart because of it. _You_ have had all of time and grew stronger and stronger while I was caught under the ground of this planet. A few centuries later and I might have died here!"

"That was the general idea, I think..." the Bad Wolf said smirking. "You might not see it because your power has made you blind, but the world doesn't need us any more. We had to create it, yes, but... since then it has been able to recreate _itself_. New stars and lifeforms are born every day. You probably failed to realise it but that's the real beauty of life. It finds a way on its own... Isn't that right, Doctor?"

The Doctor looked up, completely surprised at being suddenly addressed. "Why, yes, but... One question though. You seem so different from the last time we talked. How did you change like that in such a short time? Only because of Rose's reaction?"

"No," the Bad Wolf answered, smiling. "I looked at her memories... Saw through her eyes what you showed her and came to understand your way of thinking. That every life, no matter what it is, is worth living. And I'm sorry about what I have done."

The Doctor eyed the Bad Wolf sceptically. Was it really possible for someone, or something, to change that much in such a short time? Of course, there was Jack who turned from a conman to a hero in mere hours but he had always had a good heart. The Vortex, on the other hand, just developed its own consciousness... can a being without real experiences get a real understanding of what's wrong and right out of visiting someone else's memories and feelings?

"Let's say I believe you..." he finally said. "Are you going to let Rose go then?"

"You... won't have to fulfil your part of the deal."

It didn't elude the Doctor that the Bad Wolf avoided looking into his eyes. "That doesn't answer my question!" he said angrily. "Are you letting Rose go?"

"Have you forgotten something?" a voice said impatiently, turning their attentions back to the dark boy. "Whether you are going to get your toy back or not, _Doctor…_" He spit his name out like it was an insult. "…is the least of your concerns right now."

The Bad Wolf barked a laugh. "You are just a shadow of yourself! You have no chance of defeating me!"

"Better a shadow than a prisoner of the emotions of a little human girl!"

"What?!" the Bad Wolf yelled, its eyes blazing with golden light.

Jack had been watching the exchange quietly, but now stepped forward before the Doctor could stop him. "Now, now..." he said, holding up his hands in a defensive gesture. "No need to start name-calling. I'm sure everything is going to be alright, if we just-"

He was interrupted by a sharp stone piercing his heart with enormous speed, thrown by the dark boy with his black energy.

The Doctor caught him before he tumbled off the cliff behind them, shaking his head in disbelief. "Never know when to be quiet, do you, Jack?"

Laughing, the boy looked at the Vortex. "That's what humans deserve for disrespecting their gods."

"You are no one's god," the Vortex replied calmly. "You don't even deserve to walk on the same ground as they."

"We will see about th-" the dark boy stopped abruptly when Jack suddenly gasped and grabbed the Doctor's arm.

"Damn... I will never get used to this!" Jack said, grinning up at the Doctor. "Miss me?"

"In your dreams!" the Time Lord replied smiling, helping his friend to his feet.

"That's... interesting. You meddled with the male's time," the dark boy said to the Vortex. "What for?"

"Oh, that wasn't me. Rose brought him back, permanently, when she took my powers. Didn't know about that one, hm? But enough chit-chat... I can't get you to give up quietly, can I?"

Smirking, the boy crossed his arms. "My powers are strong enough for the likes of you."

"We will see about that..." The Bad Wolf turned around to look at the Doctor and Jack. "You two should stand back... This could get nasty."

The Doctor let go of Jack to grab Rose's arms. He winced at the heat but continued to hold them tightly. "What are you going to do?! I swear to you if you harm a hair on her head, I'm going to..." he threatened, the Oncoming Storm ready to destroy.

Smiling gently, the Bad Wolf said, "Don't worry. Her body is safe with me."

"No!" the Doctor yelled, strengthening his grip. "We had a deal! Use _me_ for this! Use _my_ body! That's what you wanted, isn't it?"

"What?! That's what you did to save Rose? _Doctor!_" Jack said, face aghast at his words but the Time Lord ignored him.

Sighing, the Bad Wolf freed itself from the Doctor's grip with ease, evading his hands. "I can't, Doctor. Not any more. Rose's mind shut completely down... if I were to leave her body now, she might go into a coma or even die. I can't reach her at all."

"I don't believe you!" the Doctor yelled, panting. "She's human. She can't have mental shields strong enough to shut you out!"

"I once told you that Rose was special, Doctor. Every human has decent psychic abilities. Despite her being out of a time when those abilities were just starting to evolve, Rose managed to strengthen them while travelling with you. I think your TARDIS has meddled with her brainwaves to help her grow even stronger."

The Doctor's eyes widened. "That can't be..." he said slowly. "The TARDIS wouldn't do something like that without me knowing about it. And I have had so many companions... Why would she..."

"_Special_, Doctor. Rose is special because you fell in love with her," the Vortex said smiling. "900 years of time and space and you are _still_ underestimating your ship... The TARDIS knew about your feelings long before you did."

The Doctor smiled, silently admiring his magnificent ship. "She protected her all this time... That's why Rose survived taking you inside her head."

"I think it is..." the Vortex replied.

"As _lovely_ as your exchange is to watch," a voice said angrily a few steps away from them. "I'm growing tired of it."

"Doctor, it's the only chance we've got... You have to let me go."

Reluctantly, the Time Lord let go of her and watched sadly as Rose's body went toward the boy and into battle.

"What are you doing?!" Jack screamed at him, taking a vice grip on his shoulder, pulling the Doctor to face him. "You can't let it use Rose's body like that!"

"There's nothing we can do, Jack," the Time Lord said, defeat and desperation in his voice. "Without the Bad Wolf, the... _boy_ can kill us with the blink of an eye. We have to trust it."

Jack groaned and eyed Rose's back warily. "I hope you know what you are doing..."

"Me, too, Jack... me, too."

~*~

The Bad Wolf smirked at its opponent. This would be easy... far easier than even it had predicted. It literally felt the power radiating from the boy. Uncontrolled. Paired with anger and thirst for vengeance. Valuable energy disappearing into thin air. Keeping the conversation going had been one of its tactics...Wearing it out to strike back with full force. The Vortex's power might be limited inside Rose's body but so was its opponent's in the boy.

"What are you waiting for?! Attack me!" the boy yelled at the Bad Wolf, sending more and more black energy into the air. _Oh_, thanks to its emotions it would be easy indeed...

Shrugging, it stretched out both of Rose's arms as if to inviting the boy into her arms. "I thought I should grant you the first strike. Out of courtesy, of course. That is... if you can hit me," it said with blazing eyes, delighted to see its words had exactly the impact it desired. The boy was furious.

"I've waited ages to wipe that grin off your face!" the boy replied through gritted teeth, energy sliding down his arms towards his hands. Concentrating a mass of power inside his palms, the boy grinned sinisterly. "Last chance to run and hide..."

"You wish!"

~*~

It all happened at amazing speed. The Doctor and Jack watched how the dark boy suddenly stretched his arms out in front of him and fired an enormous mass of black energy at Rose.

The Bad Wolf stood perfectly still, a thin golden shield surrounding it, welcoming the power with open arms.

"What's it doing?" Jack whispered, shocked at this display of raw power. Small pebbles rose to float around the two figures. The tension in the air made the Doctor's hair stand on end. Even through the thick skin of the protective suits, he could feel the heat and pressure radiating from the two figures. _This_, thought the Doctor, _is truly a battle of gods..._

"Why is it just standing there?" Jack asked again.

"It's a tactic," the Time Lord whispered back. "It's waiting for the best moment to strike. They are fighting with the most elemental form of energy. Space and Time... that's what the whole of creation consists of. But that also means a huge disadvantage for both of them..."

"And that is?" the former conman inquired.

"_Weeell_... Everything around us, ground, gases, solar radiation, even our _bodies_ were once created from these two types of energy. Normally, they don't exist like this any more. Not in this form, not in this concentration. So, what does nature do when suddenly a giant mass of this valuable energy is presented to it on a silver plate?"

Jack looked wide-eyed at the Doctor. "It's absorbing it? _We're_ absorbing it?"

"Exactly," the Time Lord said proudly. "Well, most of it is absorbed by the planet. We are only getting a small part of it... Going to have the effect of a strong cup of coffee, probably. Nothing more. This planet on the other hand..."

Jack took a closer look at the two figures. The boy still fired energy at the Vortex who in turn stood calmly, taking it all. At least it _looked _like it was taking it, but now that Jack looked more closely, he noticed how the energy was being rebounded by the Bad Wolf's golden shield and... "It's... getting sucked into the ground?!" he exclaimed, looking at the vanishing energy in wonder.

"Yep! And the Vortex is clever... _very_ clever. While most of its opponent's energy is vanishing, the Bad Wolf itself saves its power for an attack. But there is also another effect... take a look at the ground surrounding them."

Jack looked down and, sure enough, the earth around the two combatants seemed to be coming back to life. Different kinds of plants, moss, grasses and vines were sprouting at an enormous speed, bringing the planet back to life.

The Doctor grinned. "It's like the Bad Wolf said: Life _always _finds a way. It's using the energy to create itself. Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!"

Jack also had to grin. Seeing an old piece of rock suddenly come back to life... The Doctor was right. It was kind of brilliant...

~*~

The boy gritted his teeth as more and more energy began to leave his body. He was barely able to see the Bad Wolf through the darkness created by his attack, knew only of its continuing resistance because of the golden light shining through now and again. He didn't understand... couldn't even _begin_ to understand how the Vortex could still be standing. There was no resistance, no defence. Only a thin layer of energy had surrounded his opponent when he began his attack... but that surely couldn't be protecting it enough to withstand an unrelenting onslaught of energy. It couldn't be that strong... or did he make a mistake? Was he wrong to assume the girl's body would weaken the Vortex?

The dark boy felt his knees buckling, his arms started to shake from exertion. He had come so far... so far to get his revenge. It wasn't supposed to end like this! He was strong... far stronger than the Bad Wolf! And yet the boy felt the power leaving him. Felt how it began to disappear faster and faster even as he increased the onslaught. He looked around him, surprised to feel that power leaving not only through his hands... the _boy's_ hands, but also from his whole body. Something was sucking it out of him.

Scared and confused, the dark entity looked around it, momentarily ceasing its attack on the Bad Wolf. And that was when it struck back.

~*~

The Doctor and Jack watched as the Bad Wolf attacked. Golden energy, brighter than their eyes could take, left Rose's body. It smashed down on the boy, who was too confused, too surprised to react in time. Unhindered, it met his body... surrounding him with a ball of light. Only a few seconds passed until they heard a scream... a terrifying one of pain, anger and fear.

The Bad Wolf let Rose's arms drop to her sides, smiling at the picture in front of it. The golden ball of light grew slightly bigger until it exploded and send arrows of gold all around them.

The boy was gone, leaving only a small smoking spot surrounded by singed plants.


	11. Chapter 11

"What happened?" Jack breathed, looking horrified at the empty spot. "Did he... I mean, did _it_ die?"

"No," the Vortex answered, a sad look replacing its former smile. "It can't be killed. It's more or less immortal... like me. But all of its energy has been absorbed by the planet. The only thing left was its consciousness... inside the boy's body."

Walking to the burned spot, the Doctor asked, "What did you do then?" He knelt down and ran two gloved fingers over the ashen spot. "Disintegrated the body apparently... but what happened to its mind?"

"I caught it in a time warp. It is still here... in every time but also in no time. It is a cruel prison, but the only thing that can truly hold it."

Jack made a face. "I was caught in a time warp once... Not alone, though. Longest two weeks of my life."

"How did you get out?" the Doctor asked, his eyebrows shooting up.

The former Time Agent shrugged. "Not without help."

"We should go back to the TARDIS," the Vortex suggested, obviously disinterested in Jack's story. "The longer I stand on this planet, the more energy it sucks from me..."

The Doctor looked curiously at it. "Can't you control the flow of energy?"

"Not with a human body, no. Once opened, the connection the planet made is not easy to break... And I'm exhausted from the fight."

"What about Rose?" the Doctor asked. "Is she still...?"

The Bad Wolf closed Rose's eyes.. "Yes... I can't get to her."

"Alright then. Back to the TARDIS. Maybe I can built a connection to Rose with her help."

~*~

The walk back had been quiet, with everyone lost in their own thoughts. The Doctor and Jack worried about Rose while the Bad Wolf's thoughts drifted back to its old friend. First imprisoned in the depths of a planet, now caught in time... completely alone. It wondered how much of its old friend's words were true... Did the story, told all over the universe, hold the truth? It could barely remember anything about the beginning. The Bad Wolf knew when time began. It also knew

the universe hadn't been created by it alone. But everything was blurry and when it tried hard to remember, the pictures slipped away like water through its fingers. Maybe that was why it hadn't had a consciousness for such a long time. The guilt it felt even without its memories was eating it alive...

The Bad Wolf looked curiously at the Doctor's back.

Was that what _he_ felt all the time? The unspeakable pain digging its claws into his chest? He was like it in a way. He destroyed his race for the greater good as the Vortex did... if you considered it and its friend a race, that is. Suddenly, possessing his body with that amazing physiology didn't seem to be that appealing any more...

And what about Rose? Was she feeling the same right now? It was only one person and she didn't even kill her herself but... Rose still thought of herself as guilty. After living inside of her mind for such a long time, the Vortex knew how sensitive and kind she was. The Vortex felt the sting of its own guilt for the pain it was causing the human child, the emotion pressing heavily against its chest... _Rose's_ chest, really.

Thanks to the Doctor's 'amazing navigational skills', which led them into the wrong direction at first, it took them another twenty minutes to reach the TARDIS. Once safely inside, the Doctor took off both Rose's and his helmets and looked into her golden eyes.

Jack, who also took off his helmet (as well as everything else which none of the others noticed), plopped down on the jump seat to watch them. There was nothing he could do for Rose after all.

The Doctor gently placed two fingers on either side of Rose's face. "I'm going to enter her mind now. Ready?"

The Bad Wolf nodded as the Doctor closed his eyes and dove into Rose's consciousness.

It was pitch black at first... so unusual from the light that normally dominated her mind. The Time Lord sent his own mind wandering, searching for something, _anything _that would lead him to the love of his life. Cursing when he found nothing more than deeper darkness and snippets of black memories, he searched for the Bad Wolf instead.

It appeared in the form of a small golden light, apparently unable to access Rose's memories and retaining its more natural form..

"I can't find her. Do you know where she is hiding?" the Doctor asked, running both hands of his virtual self through his mind's image of his hair.

The Vortex said nothing as it moved off with the Doctor following close behind.

After a while, they reached Rose, curled into a small ball in front of them, shutting everyone and everything out. The Doctor walked forward, one arm outstretched, until he reached an invisible wall. "The shield," he murmured. "Oh, Rose... It's good to have a strong mind but _please_ don't shut me out."

Rose just continued to sit perfectly still in the darkness.

"She can't hear you," he heard the Vortex say. "She is caught in her grief. We could try to break through her shield with force, but..."

"That could destroy her mind," the Doctor finished, keeping his eyes on Rose. "There is another way, though. I could ask the TARDIS to lower the protection around her. The moment Rose broke down, my ship began to strengthen her mental powers." He smiled to himself. "The old girl really likes her a lot..."

"I don't think that's going to be enough," the Vortex mentioned uncertainly. "I have shared her mind for a while now and I can't reach her... What makes you think you are going to have more luck?"

The Doctor smiled knowingly at the golden light. "Because I love her."

~*~

It was a moment of sudden revelation. He had said the words without even thinking about them. The words rushed naturally from his mouth like breath from his lips. Never in his entire life had he been more sure of anything. Saying the words, giving each other reassurance of their feelings... seeing Rose like this made everything clearer than glass to him. Humans needed words to leave no doubt about their feelings... Rose needed reassurance, needed _him_ to tell her in ways other than kisses, hugs and sex (as mind-blowing as _that_ was). Maybe it was because of their low telepathic abilities or the morality of their times, sliding easily in and out of relationships, that made humans so _insecure_. Whatever it was, seeing Rose like this showed him just how vulnerable she could be under her strong surface. And how much he must have hurt her for not saying it...

"What is it with you?" the Bad Wolf said, breaking his thoughts. "First, you have the same strange look as Benjamin Franklin when he invented the lightning rod and now you look like a kicked puppy!"

The Doctor made a face. "I did _not_ look... _dopey_ like Franklin. I should know, I was there!"

"And I wasn't?"

Thinking how unfair it was having to discuss historical knowledge with time itself, the Doctor crossed his arms and looked back at Rose. "Anyway! I'm going to talk to the TARDIS and get something. You stay here and keep an eye on her... I won't have to go back into her mind the same way to help her."

"What exactly are you going to do?"

The Time Lord grinned. "Something clever."

~*~

Rose cried out. The pain... the pain of guilt and shame, of weakness and incompetence. It was too much for her. Her whole mind screamed for release, screamed for death and darkness. She wanted to vanish... for someone like her surely couldn't be allowed to live. Not someone who killed without reason.

Having lost all of reasonable thought long ago, Rose sobbed inside her virtual world while hugging her knees. She wanted to be alone... couldn't bear the thought of facing the Doctor or Jack. What she had done was unforgivable, unacceptable. They would never take her back. The Doctor wouldn't, _couldn't_ love her any more. If he had ever loved her in the first place.. After all, he had never said...

~*~

The moment he left Rose's mind, the Doctor ran out of the console room, paying little attention to the surprised Jack still sitting in the jump seat. He raced down the corridor. Coming to a sudden stop in front of his room, _their_ room now, he searched frantically through the endless pockets of his coat spread out on a chair.

"_Aha_!" he exclaimed when he found the object of his desire and ran out of the room, all the while telling the TARDIS to lower Rose's defences.

Back in the console room, he ignored Jack's "What the hell are you doing, Doc?!" and moved to stand in front of Rose, her empty eyes still staring sightlessly ahead.

"Are you ready, old girl?" he asked his ship, looking up at the TARDIS ceiling.

When she hummed in return, the Doctor put on the object he had pulled from his coat pocket: the small golden ring that had helped to start their relationship to begin with. Gleaming on his left ring finger, it represented all of his remaining hope.

The Doctor closed his eyes briefly and clenched his fists. _Please, don't let me down, _he thought before concentrating all of his psychic energy on the small object on his finger.

The ring multiplied his energy. Stars began to dance in front of his eyes, the psychic power so great that the Doctor felt momentarily lost. Getting a grip on himself, he began to use the power and reached out, entering Rose's mind on an entirely different level and searching through the darkness for the woman who meant the most for him.

~*~

Rose screamed as the darkest of her memories were pulled into the light for her to relive. The day her father died. When she had nearly brought the end to the world... and the Doctor. How he had been swallowed by the Reaper... it was all her fault. And then, the Daleks, of course. She committed genocide. Without thinking twice, without even considering another solution, she wiped out a whole race. However cruel, merciless and evil they might have been, it was still genocide. And she wasn't better than them... not really. No, she was a monster... just like them. Filthy, vicious, unworthy of living and-

"_You are not." _

Rose started at the whispered words suddenly surrounding her. She looked around confused,, peering through the inky darkness as she searched for the speaker.

The voice sounded like _him _but it couldn't be, could it? Surely, he wouldn't come for her... Wouldn't try to get her back after what she had done.

"_Oh, but Rose, I'm here," _the voice said again, louder now. It couldn't... it couldn't be. He wouldn't! He would never...

"_Rose..."_

Only one man was able to breath her name like that. More tears began to brim inside her eyes, but these were of hope, not despair. "Doctor..."

A light suddenly appeared in front of her. Small at first, it quickly began to grow until it had engulfed her, pushing away the darkness and bathing her in a warm glow.

Blinking against the bright light, Rose shielded her eyes with her hand and stood up, searching the glowing white for the Time Lord.

"Doctor?" she asked, turning around and around. With every passing second, she became more nervous, more desperate to get a glimpse of her love.

He had to be there... It had been his voice, no doubt.

She nearly cursed herself for daring to hope, when she felt two warm arms encircling her waist from behind. Rose gasped when she felt a familiar body pressed against her back.

"_I have found you... Rassilon, I have found you," _the Doctor whispered. His chin rested on her shoulder and his mouth was pressed in the back of her neck. _"I have found you."_

Tears streamed down Rose's cheeks. He had come for her. He had really come for her.

With inhuman speed, she whirled around, throwing herself into his arms. They both slid to the floor, holding on to one another for dear life.

Rose buried her face in the lapels of his jacket, relief flowing through her every core.

"I love you. I love you so much," she whispered into the brown fabric. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. For what I have done... I'm so sorry."

"_Shhh..."_ he breathed against her hair. _"Don't be. It wasn't you. It wasn't your fault. Not in the slightest." _Pulling back, he looked into her eyes, cupping her tear-streaked cheek. _"You are everything to me, Rose Tyler, I can't live without you... I just can't. Not any more. Come back to me, please!"_

"B-but... the priestess. I- I can't. I..."

The Doctor rested his forehead against hers._ "It wasn't you, it was the Vortex, Rose. It used your body, nothing more. You are innocent of this crime."_

"No!" she suddenly screamed, pushing him away from her. "It was me! My body! I wasn't strong enough! I couldn't keep it from killing! I... I..."

She muttered on and on, covering her ears with her hands so she couldn't, wouldn't hear his explanations. The Doctor went to her and pulled her hands away. _"Listen to me! Rose!" _

Shaking her head frantically, Rose tried to pull away but to no avail. "No! My fault! It's all my fault! My-"

Her chanting was stopped by the Doctor's mouth covering hers.. At first she tried to pull away but when the Time Lord hold her tightly inside his arms and made no sign of letting go, Rose finally gave up and let herself drown in the kiss. Her lips moved frantically over his, savouring the warmth spreading through her body.

The Doctor let go of her hands to put them both on her waist and pressed her even closer to him. Rose didn't care and laid her arms around the Doctor's neck, tugging him down to deepen the kiss. He groaned into her mouth when one of her hands began to message his scalp, vanishing into his great hair.

Reluctantly, the Doctor pulled away. _"Rose..."_ His voice sounded more like a growl. _"As much as I would love to continue... this isn't real. We have to go back. To reality."_

Tears formed again inside her eyes. "But... I..." She looked down. "How can you want to take me back? How can you... how can you..."

"_Love you?"_

Rose looked up, completely shocked at his words. "Wha-?"

The Doctor grinned. _"Surprised? I have had a little revelation while you have been here. I have never understood before why humans are so desperate to hear the words... but now I do. Oh Rose..."_ He pressed his forehead against hers. _"You have no idea how much I do."_

"Say it then," Rose said, taking his hands. "Say the words."

"_I love you."_

Rose cried out and threw her arms around him, hugging the Doctor tightly to her.

In that moment, the shield she had built around her broke and her mind returned to its normal state. Memories flew around them, some freely, others hidden behind a door. Emotions shone in various colours, most of them bright and joyful.

"It's really not my fault?" Rose mumbled, pressing her mouth into his shoulder.

The Doctor grinned._ "No, of course not." _

"And you really love me?" she asked, pulling back to eye him sceptically. "You didn't just say that?"

"_I really love you."_

Rose grinned, tongue peeking out between her teeth. "Damn time!"

Leaning down to kiss the grin off her lips, the Doctor jumped when he heard a voice.

"I'm not interrupting, am I?"

A girl with golden eyes stood a few steps away.

"Shareen?" Rose asked, before realising the truth. "It's _you_!"

"Hello, Rose Tyler. Finally we meet..."

Rose clenched her fists. "How dare you?! How dare you face me?! And in the body of Shareen no less..."

The Vortex smiled. "Not a body. Only a memory, Rose Tyler. I thought you would prefer speaking to a human form instead of a golden ball."

Laying a soothing hand on her shoulder, the Doctor whispered in Rose's ear, _"Calm down. It saved us... and you."_

Rose turned around to him with wide eyes. "The boy!" she exclaimed. "Oh my God... What happened?"

"I defeated and imprisoned him again," the Bad Wolf answered her question, looking at her with a wise smile. "Everything alright with you again? Your reaction to the priestess's death was... unusual."

Taking Rose's hand in his own, the Doctor spoke in her stead. "What did you expect? Humans aren't made to host two consciousnesses inside their minds. Your presence here caused her thoughts, memories and emotions to run wild. One shocking experience and BAM! her mind shut down," he said angrily.

"I'm sorry about that... about everything."

"You better be," the Doctor said, glaring at it. "What are you going to do now? Leave her alone, I hope..."

Chuckling, the Vortex looked up. "Of course I will. I'm going to stay on this planet... keeping an eye on my old friend and the planet's development."

Nodding, the Doctor looked at Rose. "We should go now... Are you ready?"

"Yes," she answered without hesitation and leaned her head against his arm.

The Time Lord smiled and concentrated on getting them back to reality.

The Vortex watched them vanishing and took a last look at its surroundings. This mind of the little human girl had taught it more than even an eternity of time and space had been able to...

Hardships were going to follow the couple around like shadows, trying to separate them with all their might. The Bad Wolf could see them clearly and made a sudden decision.

It decided to break the most important rule of them all... And with that last thought, it vanished out of Rose Tyler's mind.

~*~

The Doctor and Rose stumbled slightly when they returned to the real word, feeling suddenly strangely cramped in their bodies. A few seconds later, Rose's eyes began to glow in golden light as the Vortex exited her body from eyes and mouth. Steadying Rose as she wobbled on her feet, the Doctor looked up at the golden ball of light in front of them. "Thank you... for leaving her."

"You don't have to thank me... not really. But _I_ have to thank _you_ and will do so..." a voice said, ringing right inside their heads. "Rose, when the time comes, hold onto a clamp with Jack."

Confused, Rose looked at the light and said, "I don't understand... what do you mean?"

"You will understand when the time has come. Now I bid you… farewell."

"Wait!" the Doctor shouted just when the TARDIS door flew open. The Bad Wolf stopped its way outside and the Time Lord could practically feel an expecting glance. "What about the paradox? The boy has been defeated so why aren't Reapers appearing?"

"Can't you figure it out on your own, Doctor?" When he only frowned in silence, the Vortex sighed and continued. "There has never been a paradox."

"That can't be! Oscuria is supposed to have a glorious future... how can it have that with all its people gone? That's impossible!"

"You use that word too fast, Doctor. And... no one died on this planet. No one apart from the curious boy those body we just met," the Vortex said, obviously enjoying the Time Lord's cluelessness.

"But... that's impos-... improbable! What happened to the inhabitants then?"

"Prophecies, Doctor."

The Doctor's face was screwed up in confusion until it finally dawned to him and he slapped his forehead with his hand. "Oh, I'm _so_ thick! I have got to be the thickest person in the universe!"

"Not quite but close enough," the Bad Wolf replied with a laugh. "Farewell now, Doctor and Rose. Until we meet again..." And with that the golden light flew out of the TARDIS.

The Doctor looked after it, scratching his head. "How can an eternal being be that cheeky?"

"That's easy Doc, really..." a voice said behind the Doctor and Rose, making both jump at the sound.

Recognising Jack's voice immediately, Rose turned around to run to him but stopped abruptly when she noticed his state. Blushing beet red, she looked him up and down until the Doctor covered her eyes with his hand.

Growling, the Time Lord glared at the bared Captain. "What the bloody hell did you get naked for?!"

"The suit had been too itchy on my skin so I removed it," Jack said, before winking at Rose who peeked through the Doctor's fingers. "And to give Rose a great show, of course!"

"The suit is itchy because you are supposed to wear clothes under it, you idiot! Go and get dressed. _Now!_"

While anyone else would have cowered when screamed at by the Oncoming Storm, Jack just shrugged and swaggered down the corridor.

Sighing, the Doctor turned to Rose who had managed by now to dive away from his fingers and looked appreciatively at the retreating Captain's perfectly shaped bum.

"Oi! Eyes up here!" the Doctor exclaimed before kissing Rose's cheeky grin away from her mouth.

Moaning at every little movement of the Time Lord's talented tongue, Rose lay one hand on his chest while placing the other on the base of his neck to finger the short hairs there.

The double heartbeat drummed wildly under her fingers, making her very reluctant to let go of him. "As much as I would like to shag you on the floor right now... What did the Bad Wolf mean with 'prophecies'?"

"_Oh_, just something we have to do to give this planet a happy ending. In for another two trips, Madame Rosemarie?"

~*~

Rose, dressed in a colourful dress and big, dangling earrings, looked nervously down at the crowd below her. The Doctor said she would have to speak in front of a _few_ people and yet there were thousands of eyes looking up at her. After using the sonic screwdriver to get the people's attention with a terrible sound and making a pompous speech about the famous Madame Rosemarie who travelled far to speak to them, the Doctor left her standing on the stage in the middle of the market place, the crowd obviously waiting for her to say some very intelligent words. Rose only wished she would have practised before...

"Alright! Yeah... listen. In... in ten years, there is going to be a big explosion happening here. You lot have to leave the planet before that or you are all going to die. _Oh!_ And a sun is going to vanish too so also other planets are going to be affected. I think that's it, yeah." Rose groaned inwardly at her own words and could practically feel the Doctor's effort not to laugh.

Unfortunately, the Oscurians seemed to think on the same lines. "Why should we believe you?!" someone yelled and others murmured their agreement.

"Yeah, you are a fraud!" yelled someone dressed in heavy black robes, as he stepped in front of the crowd. No one saw him quickly swallow a little phial of poison. "The heavens shall punish me if I'm wrong!" The man looked up and winked at Rose before his face twisted in pain and he fell dead on the ground. Screams echoed through the crowd and a man went over to check his vital signs. "He is dead!" the man announced causing the people to scream.

"She killed him! She did it with a gaze of her ice-cold eyes!"

"She is a monster! A demon!"

"No, the gods! The gods killed him!"

"Witch! Witch!"

Rose clenched her teeth in a vain attempt to contain her anger. That's what you get for helping people...

"Fear not!" the Doctor yelled, holding up his hands. "The Madame Rosemarie grants life as easily as the gods take it. Look!"

Rose rolled her eyes but stepped down from the stage to kneel down in front of the 'dead' man. She sighed and laid her hand over his face. "Live!" she yelled as she stepped back to give him some space. She yelped when the man instead grabbed her wrist and pulled her down for a searing hot kiss. Rose felt the Doctor's glare burning into her back but instead of pulling away she threw her arms around the very lively Jack and returned the kiss eagerly.

Fuming with jealousy, the Doctor grabbed Rose's waist and pulled her to him, all the while glaring at the immortal who grinned in return and turned to the crowd.

"I'm alive!"

The people gasped and pointed with fingers at him, whispering about the wonder they had just witnessed and the gypsy's power.

The Doctor took Rose's hand and whispered into her ear, "There isn't more we can do. Come on!" He tugged her back to the TARDIS and pressed her against the wooden doors, catching her lips with his own and pressing their bodies tightly together.

"Damn Jack... always playing his pranks," he murmured against her lips when Rose had to catch her breath.

"Oh, I don't know... I don't mind it too much," Rose replied cheekily.

She gasped when the Doctor growled deeply and caught her lips again.

~*~

The second prophecy turned out to be much easier to make than the first one. Word got around about the astonishing 'Madam Rosemarie' and so, when they arrived at the NA headquarters, two hundred years before their last visit, Rose was welcomed with open arms.

"Your groom says you have a prophecy for us, dear Madame. Please speak to us!" one of the planet's inhabitants said, fluffing his black feathers. A few others repeated his plea.

"Please speak to us! Please speak to us!"

Feeling heat rising to her cheeks, Rose cleared her throat. Relieved that she knew this time what she had to say, the London girl began to speak. "In exactly two hundred years of time, the Doctor, just 'the Doctor,' will come and seek information in this very place. His success is of vital importance and he has to get whatever he wants."

The crowd cheered and applauded. Some of them wrote her words down and a few repeated them joyfully.

"We should go," the Doctor said to his companions after the magpies celebrated them for a while. "History is back on track. Paradox avoided... Time for another adventure, don't you think?" He grinned manically at Rose and Jack, making them smile in return.

"But we have to go back to Earth first, Doctor," Rose said, taking out her mobile "Mickey called me two hours ago... Something about a school with unusually smart kids."

The Time Lord made a face. "Mickey the idiot... do we have to go?" he asked with a small whine in his voice.

Rose looked at him chidingly. "He could be on something there... What if it's aliens? Messing with kids?"

Sighing, the Doctor gave in. "Alright then. But we are _not _visiting your mother!"

~*~

That is it then... epilogue is going to follow shortly.

I want to thank everyone who read and reviewed! This has been the thickest plot I have ever written so opinions are very welcome and encouraged ;)

Special thanks goes of course to naughtybunny23 who did an amazing job as my beta-reader! I don't know what I would have done without you, hun. Thank you! :)

Another thing I have decided is that I won't continue to post stories here on . I'm still going to write but am only going to post on Teaspoon and maybe LJ. I just don't like much how the site is developing and haven't read anything on here for several months so it's the most reasonable thing to do.

Thanks also to everyone who EVER read anything from me. Hope to see you over at Teaspoon again!

Bye

Carly


	12. Epilogue

Seven months later...

"_Hold on! Rose! Hold on!_"

Rose clung desperately to the lever, her grip slipping inch by inch with every Dalek flying past her. The pull from the Void tugged mercilessly at her, trying to suck her in with all its might, to separate her from the man she loved... The wind became faster, the pull stronger and she fought and fought to keep her grip. It wasn't supposed to end like this. Not in an empty white room... not without a last kiss and a parting caress from her lover. But her fight was in vain... she felt it before it happened and looked to the Doctor. He clung to his magnetic clamp and watched in terror at her losing her grip. He screamed at her, reached desperately out for her but was too far away... too far away for once to hold her hand.

She closed her eyes briefly when she lost her grip, thinking about the times they spent together... what they did, what they lived through and most of all, what was yet to come.

Opening her eyes again, she reached out to another hand extended to her. No, it wasn't supposed to end like this. Because they weren't alone... not this time, not in this universe.

Rose held Jack's hand tightly in her own and grinned up to her friend. He, in turn, gritted his teeth as he struggled to hold onto the magnetic clamp for both of them. Rose thanked God for his long arms and strong muscles that had prevented them both from being sucked into the dark.

The pull strengthened again. Daleks and Cybermen whizzed past them faster and faster, vanishing into the Void with a loud 'whoosh.' The wind howled, the monsters' screams grew louder and then... there was nothing. The wall, the gateway to hell, stilled and changed back to solid form. The wind stopped, the pull lessened and Rose fell unceremoniously on the ground. She only had time enough to rub her throbbing knees angrily before her face was pressed into the solid chest of a Time Lord.

He held her close enough to make it difficult for her to breath, desperately clung to her like she would disappear if there was even an inch of space between them.

"I nearly lost you!" he cried, pressing her even closer than she thought possible to his body, his voice breaking her heart with the sorrow inside of it. "The Void! It would have sucked you in and... Rose... _God_, Rose..."

Rose gently put a hand between them on his chest, pushing him back enough to look up at him. "I'm here, Doctor, yeah? Not going anywhere. Never gonna leave you. I promised that, didn't I?"

His eyes widened and for once fully believing her words, he crushed her lips with his own. His tongue sought out her mouth, exploring her, tasting her to make sure she was really there... really in his arms. Rose put her arms around his neck, pressing her body to his and deepening the kiss. One hand first tickled the hair on his neck and then went up to his head, pressing it down and threading her fingers through the locks of his hair. The Doctor groaned and Rose took the chance to push her tongue into his mouth, exploring it like he had done just seconds before.

The Doctor's hand on her waist vanished under her hoodie, seeking out as much hot skin as it could find.

They might have gone much further than kissing if it hadn't been for their immortal friend clearing his throat.

"Not that I mind watching you two in such a heated moment," Jack said, wriggling his eyebrows suggestively when they turned dizzily to him. "But I think we should go. Can't be long until the authorities arrive."

Rose laughed and threw her arms around him. "Thank you, Jack!"

"Yeah," the Doctor said, laying a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you for saving her."

"Aww, don't worry about that!" Jack said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "I think you are going to find a great way of making it up to me," he purred at Rose, grabbing her hand and running with her to the door.

"Oi! You sorry excuse for a Captain, stop stealing my girlfriend!" the Doctor yelled, grinning at their antics when Rose and Jack vanished out of the door.

He turned around to the wall that now laid calm and pure white again. The Doctor closed his eyes. He had nearly lost her. He nearly did... would have if it hadn't been for the Vortex's warning.

The Doctor closed his eyes and tears began streaming down his cheeks. "Thank you," he whispered to no one in particular, his voice full of relief and sincere joy. "Thank you so much."

"Doctor?" he heard Rose's voice from the doorway. Wiping his tears away, he turned around and smiled at her knowing face.

She stood there, illuminated by the outside light, shining brighter in the Doctor's eyes than the Bad Wolf ever could.

"You coming?" she asked holding out her hand. He thought her smile more beautiful than the blazing sun.

Smiling, the Doctor took Rose's hand and they stepped into the light. Together


End file.
